I understand that a lot of people seem to believe that Sen. Clinton has a wealth of experience that prepared her for the top job. I know that some believe that she is a competent Senator. And I know that a lot of people are excited about the prospect of electing a woman President.
But I am deeply troubled about the prospect of electing her or any other person who got us into this war. If the American electorate never punishes politicians who get us into aggressive wars, won't all politicians be encouraged to get us into more aggressive wars in the future? If there is never any downside to supporting aggressive military action, why wouldn't we expect more of the same in the future?
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In general, I believe that incentives work, and that goes triple in politics. And there is a general political belief that one must show belligerence in order to be considered "electable". So any politician considering a run for the Presidency must automatically support whatever war that he or she has a responsibility for considering. This is surely what Hillary's advisors were telling her in 2003.
I'm tremendously afraid that we'll never see the American people punish any elected official who supports any war, including an unnecessary one. The lack of a political incentive to avoid war will necessarily lead to our country transforming herself into something ugly; we really will be a bully of sorts at that point. I don't want to see that happen. There has got to be a way to make those people who were and are responsible - and yes, I mean the Congress - pay for their error in judgment. (Enough with the spin already. I'm not buying it. It is the Congress that has the war power, not the President. Too late now, maybe, but not then.)
So IMHO, Sens. Clinton, Biden, Dodd, Edwards all deserve to get their heads handed to them because of this war. It really doesn't matter what they'd do now; the fact that they backed the war is sufficient reason for me to want them all to fail. 'Cause if they don't, we'll surely have another, and another, and another ill-considered war for which we'll be responsible.