Hillary's Sister Souljah Moment

The progressive movement held a massive pep rally at the Washington Hilton over the past two days. They gather every year around this time and it is testimony to the angry mood among at least part of the nation's electorate that all the leading candidates for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination showed up. I went last year, and got to hear a few backbench Congressmen from Illinois, California and Ohio. Today, it was Hillary.

And what she had to say wasn't encouraging. On the war in Iraq, she offered the Democratic centrist view that we must "stay the course" in Iraq. No timeline for withdrawals. The centrist "wisdom" is to project toughness. We'll prosecute the war (is this really a war?) better than President Bush. She got booed for her efforts. I'm sure her handlers were pleased. What better way to cement your centrist credentials than to get booed at a leftist confab.

Sen. John Kerry, to his credit, finally saw the light and admitted he was wrong to vote for the war resolution because, as he put it, he was lied to by the administration. Him and 300 million others.

Iraq isn't Vietnam. The insurgency there is not broad-based or motivated by an ideology that can win widespread backing. But the two situations do have one thing in common. The U.S. has irretrievably lost the good will of any Iraqi who cares about his country.

I found a piece on NPR today enlightening. It recounted the various stories told by differing government officials over time about the permanent bases the military is building in Iraq. Sen. Clinton's embrace of a semi-permanent presence in Iraq is her effort to show the military that she is tough enough to be commander in chief. To my ears, that means that if she is elected, she will continue to prosecute the war, or whatever it is you want to call the steady drumbeat of drive-by bombings and shootings that are taking place in Iraq.

Vietnam? Got rid of Johnson and got Nixon. Iraq? Get rid of Bush and get . . . ?