2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBiden's the dove and Hillary's the hawk on foreign policy
If Vice President Joe Biden runs for president, his candidacy will surely expose a pair of vulnerabilities Hillary Clinton has largely been able to hide in her second run for the presidency: The former secretary of state is more hawkish than the Democratic base, and she was a leading advocate for the US intervention in Libya in 2011.
Time and again in President Barack Obama's Situation Room, Clinton and Biden split over where, when, and how to deploy American military force, with Clinton typically advocating a more hawkish line and Biden playing the dove.
Clinton wants people to know about the time when her hawkishness was clearly the right call: She backed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times reported Monday that she had discussed her thinking on the operation in an interview with South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison that was recorded July 23.
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It was a really tough decision to advise on because we didnt have
the smoking gun. We didnt have the picture that showed him out there
in the garden, so to speak. So we had to judge what was the best
approach. I was one who recommended to the president that
he go ahead. And his advisers were split.
In her recent memoir Hard Choices, Clinton observed of Biden only that he "remained skeptical" when she advocated for the raid. That's no small thing because then-CIA chief Leon Panetta was having a tough time selling the White House and the Pentagon.
Source.
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So here is the question for DU... what would you have done? Would you have supported the raid on the Osama compound?
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I would have supported the raid. | |
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I wouldn't have supported the raid. | |
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0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided. | |
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NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)and I simply do not know if I would have supported it. It was one of the boldest and most efficient uses of a military team I have ever seen. If they were wrong, the fall out would have been bigger than it's success. I'm glad it wasn't my decision to make. Bidens trepidation was for good reason and it was shared by almost all of them from my understanding. Hillary was skeptical herself. Your link shows they weren't that far apart on their concerns.
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)Is so true.
tularetom
(23,664 posts)Her desire that we all know that she is sort of bloodthirsty is really unattractive.
What the fuck is she trying to prove?
wyldwolf
(43,873 posts)His record is the same - if not more hawkish - than Hillary's in general.
Renew Deal
(81,897 posts)Not just because it was successful. It shows that Biden will not do what it takes to defend America.
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)Sure I'm just playing devils advocate, and I'm not even doing a good job.
But at that point what was he beyond just a figure head of an organization that was on the decline? By that point other organizations had begun to pick up where his left off. Not sure what his impact was anymore... Again I don't have special info, so I could be totally off on his role at that time.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)"Make my day."