Hillary has been to Iraq 3 times & found the scene "heartbreaking". How many times has Obama gone?

[mtnsnake]

When it comes to foreign experience, this is just one example that proves that Hillary Clinton has not only talked the talk, but walked the walk.

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Clinton: Iraq Situation 'Heartbreaking'
Senator Speaks Out Against the President's Policy in Iraq By JONATHAN KARL
BAGHDAD, Jan. 13, 2007

In an exclusive interview with ABC News in Baghdad, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., called the situation in Iraq "heartbreaking" and said she doubts Congress and the American people believe the mission here can succeed.

"I don't know that the American people or the Congress at this point believe this mission can work," she said. "And in the absence of a commitment that is backed up by actions from the Iraqi government, why should we believe it?"

Clinton traveled wearing body armor and surrounded by a phalanx of soldiers and security guards. The level of security, she noted, was much higher than her first visit to Iraq back in 2004.

"This is heartbreaking," she said. "This is my third trip here. I've seen the violence and security problems increase, not decrease.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?...

[saigon68]

1. Its time to '"Get Out" of Iraq-Nam

[eyesroll]

2. January 2006 at least.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=37943...

[Kittycat]

19. HillFans are just going to ingore this.

They're not interested in reality based conversation. They're just trying to get the white-out off their hands, from taking Bill's name off of everything, and putting HRCs in place... Except for the bad stuff she agreed with, then they're just keeping that locked up all together so the GOP can slime her if she gets the nod.

[Neshanic]

28. I'm not. She won't get us out and he will not either.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

85. its like Bush flying over New Orleans

it doesn't mean shit, because people are still dead.

[skipos]

3. Hilary made that bed with her IWR vote, she can lie in it. nt

[John Q. Citizen]

4. What's really heartbreaking is that she voted with the Repos to make it happen in the first place.

[Tellurian]

48. No other Dems voted ? I wasn't aware of that..

epiphany time!

[EmilyAnne]

59. Epiphany time, indeed. No other dem. running for pres voted for IWR. Its the truth.

Spin that in the usual way, but she did vote for the IWR. Period.

[John Q. Citizen]

63. A rather large majority of Dems voted against the IWR. Hill voted with McCain and the Repos

That's heartbreaking.

[Tellurian]

90. Hillary voted with John Kerry and John Edwards..

This is Bush's War. Not a War started by Democrats.

[Mooney]

73. No other Dems who are running for president this year. n/t

[Tellurian]

91. Obama has no standing in this debate..we don't know how he would have voted..

an educated guess would be "present".. for political reasons of course..

[niceypoo]

84. It is the only Issue Obama has..

A single vote and a single speech. Thats why his campaign is based almost soley on hating the Clinton family.

[Tellurian]

93. Yes, as time goes on.. People are becoming aware he offers very little substance..

in his stump speeches..

"yeah, we know whats wrong with America. How are you going to "fix it", Sen Obama?

Please Tell Us!

[citygal]

5. Um...she should be there visiting our troops considering

that she voted and supported the war. We all know what Obama's stance was and still is on the biggest foreigh policy mistake in American history.

[Tellurian]

49. AFAIK...Hillary Voted for Inspections and Sanctions..

why, you believe the LIE Obama's been spouting she voted for war?

[CalGator]

51. The bill was called Authorization for Inspections and Sanctions in Iraq?!

[EmilyAnne]

61. These are truly Orwellian times, my friend. War = peace, freedom = slavery, ignorance = strength

and war = inspections and sanctions.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

87. "Authorization to Use Military Force in Iraq".

Like Hillary, Tellurian apparently didn't read it.

[krkaufman]

78. o.m.g.

Not sure I'm gonna stop laughing for a while....

[krkaufman]

80. Just to be clear, CalGator's hilarious response aside ...

... the resolution was entitled "Authorization to Use Military Force in Iraq".

And, if we're to take one of Sen. Clinton's advisor's word for it, a vote in favor of the resolution was a vote "to give George W. Bush a blank check to go to war."

[ensho]

6. thanks for posting this - and Hill was in NYC when it counted, too

nt

[NYCGirl]

11. So was I. One mile from Ground Zero. I guess I should run too! NT

[Bigleaf]

34. She is a Senator there. I would hope she would be.

[Mooney]

74. Just like Rudy Giuliani.

I lived in lower Manhattan when 9/11 happened, yet somehow I don't believe that's a qualification for me to become president.

[krkaufman]

77. ha! "Rudy 9iu11iani would bring a lifetime of experience..." n/t

[Hepburn]

7. Hillary Clinton = Fucking Hypocrite

She voted for this...and NOW it is heart-breaking???

What bullshit....

[mtnsnake]

8. Obama claims to be anti-war & then votes to fund it, yet he's not a hypocrite?

Gimme a break

[11 Bravo]

12. Careful, while they are not currently burning heretics at the stake ...

who knows what tomorrow may bring?

[mtnsnake]

18. Ain't that the truth. n/t

[cali]

17. He has voted for virtually all the legislation mandating that we get out

and he's voting to fund the troops. So have the most anti-war Senators in that body- those who voted against the IWR. It's not the same thing as voting to start a fucking war and voting to give a blank check to the idiot in chief. Not even remotely.

[mtnsnake]

30. "and he's voting to fund the troops". Kucinich pointed out that this is a vote to prolong the war

Unless your name is Dennis Kucinich, there isn't a single candidate who can claim to be the only candidate who is truly anti-war, like Obama has done on more than one occasion. Dennis Kucinich made a mockery of Obama's claims right there live in one of the early debates over his votes to fund the war after he claimed to be the only anti-war candidate of the heavyweights.

You can call it "funding the troops", but like Kucinich pointed out, it's a vote that enables this war to go on and on and on. Kucinich said that all we have to do to stop the war is stop the funding, but Democrats don't have the guts because they fear they'll be perceived as not supporting the troops.

[Spiffarino]

44. Consider the Douchbag-in-Chief for a moment...

Imagine if Congress did follow through and defunded the Iraq occupation. Since there would be no money to keep it going, Bush would be forced to remove personnel and equipment from Iraq. Obviously it's the right thing to do.

Answer me this: Since when has G.W. Bush ever done something because it was the right thing to do? You know - and Congress knows - that Bush would keep troops in Iraq underfunded and under-equipped for as long as it took to blackmail the Congress into voting for emergency funds. He's essentially said that is exactly what he would do.

Joe Biden knows it would happen. John Kerry knows it. Every Democrat in Congress knows it. Bush does not care one whit about the troops. Iraq is all about him winning and his political enemies losing. Political victory is the only thing that matters to Bush.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

46. And don't forget the Feed and Forage Act

An obscure Civil War Era law that allows a President to obtain almost unlimited credit to fund military operations without Congressional approval. Bill Clinton used it for Haiti.

I wish people who keep parroting the "cut the funding" line would educate themselves.

[JimGinPA]

22. Try To Disconnect Voting To Authorize The War & Supporting The TROOPS

Two completely different things - but thanks for playing.

[Hepburn]

25. Putting on your thinking cap, OK?

The troops are THERE NOW...so what should he do? Vote against the necessaries to keep them safe?

[Medusa]

54. So you support our troops not having food, uniforms & bullets

to fight back with while IN Iraq because people like Hillary voted to send them there?

I know it's a bit difficult for those of you who aren't well-educated enough to master complex-thinking but try and follow me here. I'll spell it out in very simple terms for the Hillbots.

1---Hillary votes to support George Bush's war
2----Our troops are send to Iraq
3----W won't let them come back home and instead ups their stay
4----Voting to take away the money was NOT going to bring them back up
5----Without money to fund the war, we'd have troops stranded in a warzone with no money for essentials like food, water, clothing, shelter, and yes, ammo. Is that what you wanted? To starve a soldier who was merely doing the job that Hillary and W asked him to do?

[mtnsnake]

66. another DUer who can't defend Obama without putting his own words into someone elses mouth

Nice try!!

[Life Long Dem]

9. Wasn't one of her trips along with India's trip to outsource all our jobs to India?

I know she was there a couple years ago making deals with Tata.

[cali]

10. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders refuse to go to Iraq

They say that the Iraq trips are shams, and they refuse to participate in them. Both of them got Iraq right, unlike hillary. She's part of the reason that it is so heartbreaking. And she damn well should be heartbroken over her terrible judgment.

[npincus]

13. Her heart SHOULD be broken- she VOTED FOR the f*cking thing!!!

Either her heart or her CONSCIENCE.

[Neshanic]

14. Reality check. Hillary nor Obama is going to get us out.

[CoffeeCat]

20. She won't. He will

She's a neocon. She's supported every war-based neocon vote during her
time in the Senate.

She voted for the Iraq war and instead of learning from her mistakes--she voted
for Kyl/Lieberman, which Bush could use in his PR war against Iran.

Hillary is a neocon, just like Lieberman. When will Hillary supporters address this?

[Neshanic]

27. Uh, no he won't. The cat was let out of the bag earlier, but this is the reality

that he will not admit to, nor will she.

[CoffeeCat]

33. No cat was let out of any bag...

Geez, you people love to take one sentence, twist it until it's unrecognizable, then
interject your own opinion into it, and then twist it more into a vicious soundbyte.

Give it up.

Obama has voted for every bill--trying to get the troops out. He's stated his
plans repeatedly in 20 debates.

If Obama has a ham on Swiss for lunch tomorrow, you guys will insist that his
choice of Swiss cheese, means that he's neutral on the Iraq war, and therefore
he will keep the war going.

I'm sick and tired of you people twisting every damn sentence into some kind
of freakish talking point that you scream out every chance you get.

It sucks to run against a candidate who inspires such bullshit, dishonesty
and ruthless, baseless attacks.

[emilyg]

40. No. He. Won't.

[CoffeeCat]

47. Why do you say that?

On what are you basing your "No. He. Won't" statement?

Conversely, are you suggesting that "Yes. She. Will"?

[emilyg]

69. Neither one of them will be in a rush. imo

It's a good talking point now. But that is all it is.

[CoffeeCat]

15. Yeah, she's so torn up...

...that she voted with Bush on Kyl/Lieberman. That bill helps create a marketing
run-up to military action against Iran.

She's so damn torn up about Iran, that she's willing to empower George Bush and
the neocons--to do the same thing in Iran.

Furthermore, I'd like to remind you that the neocons asked Hillary's husband
for war with Iraq in 1998, when he was President. Here's a copy of the letter they sent to him, signed
by Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Bolton and other assorted neocon criminals.
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

She damn well knew, when she voted for the war in Iraq, that these neocons
had been trying to get their foot in the Middle East for years. Their plan
is up on their Website: Iraq first, then Iran, then Syria. It's all there
and she enables these goons at every turn.

Your suggestion that she is there, and "heartbroken" is perverse. She greases
the neocon war machine with her votes--every time.

Hillary Clinton is shameless liar. Please wake up.

[goclark]

29. "Heartbroken" is not the word that an "experienced" leader

would use.

A strong CIC, that had voted for this wor would have picked another word.

If it broke her heart what has she DONE about it?

Oh yes, she has slammed the candidate that was smart enough from the beginning and she has PRAISED the one that wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years!

[book_worm]

16. crocadile tears for the mess she helped make.

[SOS]

21. "Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq 2002"

It was heartbreaking the day Congress authorized Shrub the sole determination to start this fiasco.

[IndianaGreen]

23. She cries a lot too, when required. Why did she vote to give Bush green light to bomb Iran?

Looks to me that when one has a heart of tin, as Hillary does, there is nothing there to be broken. As Gary Hart wrote in an op-ed today, Hillary believes that "the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

89. she got an acting coach

and apparently some cosmetic surgery.

[IndianaGreen]

92. She looks younger than Pelosi now

Everything about Hillary is fake!

[Kahuna]

24. You have got to be kidding. Bush has been to Iraq too. Big deal.

[WillyT]

26. Are You Fucking KIDDING ME ???

She helped cause this massacre!!!

[RBInMaine]

31. She CAUSED the "heartbreak" by voting for the war.

[Mezzo]

41. and he continued it by funding it. (and ABANDONING his supposed cause) nt

[JackORoses]

32. she should have though about all the broken and no longer beating hearts when she voted for War

her regret is hollow.

[ericgtr]

35. Then she shouldn't have voted for it!

No apology, no remorse, nothing. Then she goes there and calls it heartbreaking? This woman is a joke.

[Rock_Garden]

36. Good question, mountainsnake.

[Lint Head]

37. It's heartbreaking because she voted 'for' the war which resulted

in the deaths of over one million people in Iraq. If Senators had stood against this criminal act, these people would be alive,
Bin Laden could be dead and the economy would not have suffered because the Iraq war has drained trillions of dollars from the our nation.

[frazzled]

38. Bush and Cheney have been there, too, and McCain--I guess that makes them wonderful?

And by the way, yes, Obama has been to Iraq. http://obama.senate.gov/news/060105-obama_making_1s / He's also made trips to Africa, when he was chair of African Affairs subcomittee (where he, importantly, negotiated the release of an American journalist who was being held in prison by the government), and to Israel and Jordan and elsewhere.

Going to Iraq doesn't mean shit: Remember, John McCain went and visited a market! What makes you think going there has anything to do with policy making?

[mtnsnake]

39. The OP was in response to people wanting to know specifically what Hillary has done

in terms of foreign experience or trips abroad. Her missions to Iraq are just ONE example of it.

I read more than a few posts hinting that she doesn't have any more hands-on experience of Iraq than Obama does. That notion is simply BS.

[Tellurian]

52. The place to look at what has been done for the troops..

is what Obama has done for the returning troops and Veterans. Illinois holds the rocks record for Veteran care.

[Tom Joad]

42. Hillary "shithead" Clinton made the heartbreaking scenes. Fuck that.

I would rather no congressperson went there and not one of them sent a bomb there. or sent US troops there.

[bigtree]

50. none of those apply to Hillary Clinton

no matter how much you want to let Bush off of the hook.

[Tom Joad]

65. I want to let Hillary's hero off the hook? The man she trusted with this decision?

fraid that ain't me.
Does Clinton/Obama want Bush to be sent to the Hague for trial on war crimes? No.
I do.

[mtnsnake]

67. "Hillary shithead Clinton". No freepers could have said it any better than you Tom.

[Avalux]

43. Why didn't she think of the heartbreaks when she voted for the IWR?

Don't tell me she didn't know how many innocent lives would be lost and how many families would be ripped apart.

[fenriswolf]

45. so experiance is once again traveling abroad?

wow imagine how much experiance obama has?

[kwenu]

53. She should go to Iraq because she voted for it.

[jmg257]

55. I've been to Japan 8x & England 1x, & my wife is a VP...Can I be president too???

I think Iraq is heartbreaking too, though I must admit I was NOT a corprate lawyer or a member of the Walmart board.

[Genevieve]

56. Hillary was complicit --

and yeah, NOW her poor heart is breaking.

[Whisp]

57. she did her talking in voting with Bush for the war.

now I wish she would do some walking - walk right out of politics and take her asshole husband with you.

[americanstranger]

58. Yeah, yeah. McCain's gone a few times, too.

I guess that's why Hillary and McCain are 'experienced' and Obama's not. /snark

And if she's seeing first-hand that the security situation is worse on her third trip, why can't she muster more than mild 'regret' about her vote that put our soldiers there in the first place? That's heartbreaking.

- as

[IsItJustMe]

60. Along with McCain and Bush, she sent our soldiers over there. She damn well should be hear broken.

[democrank]

62. Big story. Bush enabler is heartbroken.

Cry over this, Hillary.


http://icasualties.org/oif/

[Exilednight]

64. She's hearbroken, but she had no problem casting that vote.

[AtomicKitten]

68. I can imagine it is devastating to see what her irresponsible IWR has wrought.

Obama: Obstacles still in Iraq

WASHINGTON - In his first 12 hours in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said Saturday he saw or heard little to change his views about the significant obstacles that remain to stabilize that country.

While Iraqi President Jalal Talabani predicted that a national unity government could be formed within weeks, Obama said he thought "it may take a little bit longer."

In a conference call with reporters back home, Obama also reiterated his view that "if we have not seen significant progress over the next few months, we need to have an honest conversation with Iraqis as to what our investment is."

Obama, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is spending two days in Iraq as part of his weeklong congressionally sponsored tour of the Middle East. It's his first trip to the region and the second foreign trip of his brief U.S. Senate career.

Last fall, the freshman senator called for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq and criticized the Bush administration for questioning the patriotism of critics of his war policy.

* snip *

Obama will split off from the others to travel to Jordan and Israel and the Palestinian territories. His itinerary will change as a result of the massive stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday. He had been scheduled to meet with Sharon.

* snip *

He is scheduled to meet with Israeli National Security Advisor Giora Eiland, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib and high-ranking Palestinian officials.

http://obama.senate.gov/news/060108-obama_obstacles/

[LibertyorDeath]

70. Is this some kind of Sick Fucking Joke..

SHE HELPED CREATE THE FUCKING SCENE !!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO Hefuckinglo !!

"& found the scene "heartbreaking".

was Hill crying for all the dead and wounded she helped create

Fuck Her!

"How many times has Obama gone"

Jesus H Fucking Christ you have got to be fucking kiding...

[Mooney]

71. Hillary voted for the fucking war!

Going there a few times is the least she can do after helping to set this bullshit in motion.

[leftofthedial]

72. apparently she didn't find it QUITE heartbreaking enough

to stop voting for the continued illegal occupation

[Radical Activist]

75. Do you really think anyone learns anything on the military controlled tours?

Get real. They're nothing but publicity stunts.

[BenDavid]

76. oh, remember he gave that speech in 2002...so I need to ask

Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2003?
Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2004, at Kerry's convention?
Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2005?
Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2006?
Where was Obama's anti-war filibuster in 2007? Was stopping the war worth standing up, Barack?

Perhaps what you obama folks are afraid of is, "If he's got more than a 2002 speech - where is it?"

[CatnHat]

79. Obama is like Bush

He doesn't know anything about foreign policy, or foreign leaders. If his goofy staff can go over to Europe and call Hillary monster, that's saying that is guy is not ready for prime time. He can't even control his staff, let alone have diplomatic relations with other countries. One thing about Obama, he don't know how to pick his staff or his fans. They're all obnoxious.

[avrdream]

81. Let me guess: NONE!

Why try, though, mtn? Nobody here is listening anymore. We aren't changing any minds.

[CalGator]

82. I can see someone hasn't read the other 80 replies in this thread. nt

[nsd]

83. He went in 2006. The OP is just wrong. /nt

[istopforcookies]

86. Croc tears? Shit head?

My how sexist of you.

Try again.

[anonymous171]

88. Visiting fucking countries is not "foreign policy"experience

I've been to Canada a couple of times, but that isn't foreign policy experience. McCain will crush her on this, so why bother?