The Political Duplicity of Being a Liberal Democrat
As we watched the last few weeks of "debate" being fostered by the hungry news media, it was striking to see the reluctant acceptance of taking action against Iraq. If someone were to suddenly appear on this Earth and watch the news over the last few months, you would expect them to believe that the liberal agenda is a simple case of a sudden realization of inexorable facts -- a realization that only came after a reluctant admission that maybe the President might, in this particular case, be right. Any one who was watching the Clinton administration puff out with uncharacteristic military hawkishness in 1998, however, knows of the duplicity of the Liberal position.
Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, you had to wince as Fox News' Brit Hume pointed out most clearly on September 9, 2002, the duplicity and stunning reversal of the Democratic leaders when comparing their statements on Iraq 4 years ago and today. The Democratic party in Congress and former President Clintion would have you believe that their new realization over action against Iraq has come to them over a gut wrenching and reluctant change of heart, and is only a recent phenomem. This subterfuge might pass by some folks not paying attention, but not tothose focused on the duplicity of the liberals in positions of power in this country. And of course it did not sneak by Fox News. Politics is one thing, intentionally misleading the American people while pursuing a political agenda is quite another.
The current hand wringing by the Democrats is a quite remarkable and bald faced deception. The change is so dramatic to anyone looking back only four years ago, it makes one wonder of the rationality of the effort. But then no one expected Bill Clinton to still hold favor among women voters either. Amazing really.
We are suddenly reminded of the sad case of the about face of Scott Ritter, a former military man and weapons inspector. As Dr. David. Kay and Richard Spertzel stated in their September 10 testimony before the House Armed Forces Committe hearing on Iraqi Weapons Capabilities, "Either he was lieing to us four years ago or he is lieing to us now." Caught in that same sort of lie today, one could apply that same logic to Gephard, Daschel and Clinton. The message that has emerged from months of careful polling and editing is a cry that "there is no evidence to support action," and "where's the urgency", a pair of concepts never mentioned four years ago when Democrats were supporting President Clinton's sabre rattling in 1998. This duplicity borders on criminal deceit and in our opinion might be well served as a basis for Congressional investigation.
The inspiration for this table was the excellent dialog during
Fox News' Brit Hume Special Report on September 9, 2002 and speeches in
support of resolutions on the floor of the Congress in 1998. The
transcipts for Brit Hume's segment are available for a fee from Fox
News:
| Topic | Democratic Position, 1998 | Republican Position, 2002 | Democratic Position, 2002 |
| Iraqi WMD Program | "Immediate threat to U.S., region,
and world" |
"Immediate threat to U.S. and
region either directly or through proliferation to terrroists" |
"No immediate threat, unproven capabilities, no evidence to support action" |
| U.N. Resolutions | "Chronic non-compliance in
defiance of International Law"" |
"non-compliance, with brief days
of a show of compliance only to be shown quickly as promulgating lies and deceit and in the end, still non-compliance of at least 16 resolutions" |
"sanctions don't work, and they are cruel to Iraqi people, they must be lifted." |
| WMD Inspection Regime | "Lies and deceit while continuing to deny accces and hiding facilities and key scientists, no value in unfettered inspection regimes" | "llittle likelihood of unfettered access for inspectors, resulting in invalid and useless results of any inspection regime...Iraq must live up to their committments...the U.N. must do their job." | "Inspections must resume so we can get answers as to today's status of WMD programs" |
| Consquences of continued non-compliance | "No choice but to take military
action" |
"Last chance at unfettered inspection regimes or military action" | "U.S. should not take action against Iraq" |
| Coalition | "Need to seek advice and consult with allies but the U.S. reserves
the right to unilaterally take action. ...Time limit on diplomatic efforts" |
..."U.S. will take unilateral action if needbe, but will consult with allies and the U.N. | "U.S. cannot take unilateral action, must exhaust any and all diplomatic channels." |
Sources:
© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET
© Copyright 2002, MILNET