For Sen. Hillary Clinton, Iowa and New Hampshire are chapters of a story that began at 10 G Street in Washington, D.C. In October 2002, the Bush White House was preparing to march the country off to another war. In Congress, the Democrats, on the whole, dithered. Should they or should they not support the president’s Iraq war resolutions? Should they… return to article
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Reader Comments (1)Page 1 of 1 pages“Clinton claims that if she had better information in 2002—had she but known!—she would not have voted to go to war.”
Leadership is not about “The Decider” working from neat and clean information — it’s more a matter of playing the odds. Unfortunately most of our elected leaders are primarily weighing the odds of re-election and the factors concerning their own careers.
The odds against a successful conversion of Iraq into a democratic society were apparent to anyone familiar with the history of the area. Nationhood was imposed on them by in the 1920s. First and foremost in their lives (except for a secular minority) is their religion.
Governing by polls is now possible, but dangerous. What we get is decision by collective ignorance. Masses are what mobs are made of — emotions can be inflamed by information (often unconfirmed) and directed by charismatic speakers.
The speed and volume of information transfer continues to improve, while our mental capacity is non-upgradeable.
We almost always hear reports on “THE WAR” in terms of Iraq. McCain is the candidate who has always known and remembered that the war preceded our invasion of Iraq. He realized we had too few troops to do the job and a poorly defined mission. Leaving Iraq will NOT end the war regardless of what the poll numbers for/against may be.
Better to try to improve info gathering and quality than to go with the flow of public perception. Better to exercise sound judgment than “successful” rallying of public (temporary) support.Hillary’s call for better info rings with a dull thud.
Posted by whattheheck on Jan 17, 2008 at 3:40 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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