The Common Ills: Hillary regrets that more US troops were not sent into Iraq

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Hillary regrets that more US troops were not sent into Iraq

AFP headlines a report "Bush, Clinton trade blame over Iraq war."

No, they didn't.

This was covered in yesterday's snapshot.

Jeb Bush made an accusation blaming Hillary Clinton for the current crises in Iraq.

Hillary elected not to respond.

"Bush and spokesperson for Clinton trade blame over Iraq war"? That's an appropriate headline.

Hillary hid behind a man -- women apparently can't debate foreign policy or issues of war in Hillary's limited understanding of feminism -- and let Jake Sullivan respond for her.

We addressed his claims yesterday but the big one, the one those opposed to the Iraq War should remember is Jake Sullivan, speaking on behalf of Hillary and her campaign, declared that the problem with the Iraq War included Bully Boy Bush sent "in too few troops."

So Hillary, who voted for the Iraq War in 2002 and has insisted that vote was a mistake, is now arguing that the problem with the Iraq War was that there were too few US troops in Iraq.

And she is arguing that despite the fact that when Bully Boy Bush proposed the 'surge' (sending in more US troops), she opposed it -- though she later told then-Secretary Robert Gates that her opposition was just political posturing.

There is no way that you dissect her latest claim -- more US troops were needed -- and find a consistent or coherent Hillary Clinton.

What you have is someone who will say anything and pray no one examines her statement, let alone fact checks it.

Yesterday, UNAMI announced their pleasure with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's proposed reforms or 'reforms.' They did so via a statement from Deputy Special Envoy Gyorgy Busztin. Since Jan Kubis is the Special Representative to Iraq for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, some on Arabic social media are wondering why Busztin made the announcement and where Kubis is? Today is International Youth Day and, in Iraq, Busztin also delivered a speech for that occasion.

Along with wondering where Kubis is, Arabic social media is abuzz with questions over Haider's reforms or 'reforms' -- and with good reason.

No one knows what is taking place but everyone's treating the proposals as a good thing.

Are they a good thing?

Congress has been repeatedly told this year that Haider was giving more power to local areas but Al Mada notes the reforms or 'reforms' will give Haider the power to fire the local heads of government.

This is a power the prime minister has not had previously.

In addition, Alsumaria reports that he's now declaring he next plans to alter Iraq's Constitution.

Meanwhile the Iraq Times insists the first true test of the reforms will be whether or not Haider prosecutes these four people for corruption and theft: Yasser Abed al-Maliki, Hussein Hadi al-Maliki, Ali Shareef al-Maliki and Ali Sobhi al-Maliki. All four are relatives of Nouri al-Maliki, former prime minister and forever thug, and the evidence against the four is said to be well documented.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated: