Hillary Clinton claims Bush mismanaged war

By Steve Boggess

On December 15, the Iraqi government will vote to ratify a new constitution, something that otherwise would have been unheard of only a few years ago.

Recently, at a fundraising event held in Louisville, Kentucky, the former first lady accused President Bush of mismanaging the war in Iraq. Let's see, not one, but two countries that were previously under Taliban rule have now been liberated by our armed forces, and both of which have democratic governments free from the former brutal regime.

Yeah, sounds like mismanagement to me. The only thing that has been mismanaged has been the way Howard Dean has been running the Democratic National Committee.

The 2,000 people in attendance at this fundraising event cheered Hillary as she continued blasting the Bush administration on not only mishandling the war, but also accused Bush of ignoring the health care system, and rewarding tax cuts to the wealthy while piling up deficits.

I suppose in all her accusations of this administration, the former first lady has forgotten that wars cost money. I am sure World Wars I and II, Korea, and the liberals' favorite war, Vietnam, were not cheap to keep going.

There are many factors that go into the decision-making process of going to war. One of these, among the others, is that in order to send troops to the wartime theater, you have to spend money to get them there, and when the troops arrive, they also must have the means necessary to win the war.

The soldier, sailors, airmen and marines also need to get paid, as some of us have families to support, but we also have bills to pay as well.

Mrs. Clinton headlined a party fundraiser that brought in $600,000 for Kentucky political candidates. The Democrats are trying to regain seats lost to Republicans, and they are also trying to regain the governorship.

In Kentucky, the Republican Party controls the governors mansion, and all but one of the state's congressional seats.

Hillary, who is up for re-election next year in New York, and is also a possible presidential candidate in 2008, sharply criticized the Bush administration during her speech by telling the audience that: "This administration should stop serving up platitudes and present a plan for finishing this war with success and honor."

Honor, that is something I'm sure both her and her husband both know very little about.

She continued in her speech by saying that she rejects a rigid timetable that the terrorists can exploit, and she also rejects an open timetable with no ending attached to it.

Hillary also called on President Bush and Vice President Cheney to stop impugning the patriotism of their critics. Does she really see as patriots those who rail against the Bush administration, the war in Iraq, and the troops fighting it as patriots?

In 1994, Bill Clinton carried Kentucky, even though tobacco supporters burned an effigy of the former president to protest what they saw as anti-tobacco policies during his administration

State Republican Chairman Darrell Brock said: "Our Kentucky voters simply can't identify with a liberal New York senator. She is for bigger government, higher taxes and more regulation. Just the things we don't stand for."

Bigger government and higher taxes are what is most important to the Democratic Party; that, and accusations of this president mishandling the war in Iraq, and that he is calling his critics non-patriots.

Since the Democratic Party is now calling for the premature withdrawal of the troops from Iraq, I am very glad that John Kerry is not the current president.

© Steve Boggess