Troops would stay in Iraq under Hillary presidency

This is an absolute non-starter!  In an exclusive interview with the NYT, Hillary Clinton says some U.S. troops would remain in Iraq if she was elected president:

In a half-hour interview on Tuesday in her Senate office, Mrs. Clinton said the scaled-down American military force that she would maintain in Iraq after taking office would stay off the streets in Baghdad and would no longer try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence — even if it descended into ethnic cleansing.

In outlining how she would handle Iraq as commander in chief, Mrs. Clinton articulated a more-nuanced position than the one she has provided at her campaign events, where she has backed the goal of “bringing the troops home.”

She said in the interview that there were “remaining vital national security interests in Iraq” that would require a continuing deployment of American troops.

She is so politically calculated that rarely do you know where she actually stands.  Now we know.  So who out there wants a Bush-lite presidency from 2009 through 2016?  I definitely don't.

Don't get me wrong: unlike many of you that visit this site regularly, I like Hillary Clinton.  She is extremely competent, nuanced and over-qualified as a Senator.  But on military policy, she is more in line with Lieberman than the majority of the country.  Most Americans do not want a long-term troop presence in Iraq.  Bush's policy was a failure.  Let's move on, and start fixing our own country for a change.

Hillary, what are you doing?

Comments

[Tony]

I've come to the disturbing reality that almost every single one of them (politicians) are full of crap. They tell you one thing and do another. Chances are that any candidate that says they wouldn't leave any troops in IRAQ, will wind up leaving troops in IRAQ ("read my lips, no new taxes" just as an example). It might be a necessity to leave troops there for one reason or another.

My point in this comment isn't about Clinton or the troops, it's about all the crap we are fed by politicians.

[Administrator: Todd]

Damn straight! Bush, Clinton....enough of people with those recycled family names as president. We need someone new. I'm not saying that Hillary would not get my vote. But man, I thought this was a democracy, not a two-family system.

Who knows, maybe the same double talk will come out of Obama and Richardson -- although we have not seen it yet. On the honest scale, those two are definitely on the top.