Wash. Times again falsely claimed Clinton said "the surge is clearly 'working' "
SUMMARY: The Washington Times falsely claimed that "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton [D-NY] ... told the VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars] conference on Monday that the surge is clearly 'working.' " In fact, Clinton never said that President Bush's troop "surge" policy in Iraq "is clearly 'working.' " Instead, she linked the improvements in Iraq's Al Anbar Province to new "tactics," not Bush's troop escalation.
An August 23 Washington Times article falsely claimed that "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton [D-NY] ... told the VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars] conference on Monday that the surge is clearly 'working.' " In fact, as Media Matters for America previously noted, Clinton never said that President Bush's troop "surge" policy in Iraq "is clearly 'working.' " Instead, in a speech she gave on August 20, Clinton linked the improvements in Iraq's Al Anbar Province to new "tactics," not Bush's troop escalation. Reporter Joseph Curl contrasted what he falsely claimed she said at the VFW conference with her reported August 22 statement that "[i]t is abundantly clear that there is no military solution to the sectarian fighting in Iraq. ... We need to stop refereeing the war, and start getting out now."
According to an August 21 New York Times article, Clinton stated to the VFW: "We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar province, it's working. ... We're just years too late changing our tactics. We can't ever let that happen again." The New York Times also reported that "[a]ides to Mrs. Clinton said her remarks that military tactics in Iraq are 'working' referred specifically to reports of increased cooperation from Sunnis leading to greater success against insurgents in Al Anbar Province." And according to an April 29 New York Times article on improvements in Al Anbar, the progress there "began last September" -- months before Bush announced his plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq.
Media Matters noted that in an August 21 article, The Washington Times similarly reported that Clinton's quote that "it's working" was about the Bush administration's so-called "surge" policy.
Moreover, Clinton's statement to the VFW that the changed "tactics in Iraq ... particularly in Al Anbar Province" show "it's working," is not new. The New York Daily News reported on August 23 that she made similar comments about Al Anbar province in March: "Camp Clinton insisted she was talking only about a limited improvement in Anbar, linked to better relations with tribal leaders -- a claim she made to the Daily News in March." Clinton was also quoted in a May 7 New York Observer article saying, "We are making some progress it turns out, in what is called Al Anbar province against al Qaeda." From the New York Observer:
"The war is 360 degrees, there is no battlefield," she said. "So I want to get our combat troops out of a sectarian, civil war. And I have also said, and I somewhat do differ with some of my other colleagues, I think you have to take a hard look at the situation we are in. We are making some progress it turns out, in what is called Al Anbar province against al Qaeda, and the reason we are is that our military leaders have learned a lot in the last several years there and they have made common cause with some of the tribal leaders, who don't like Al Qaeda any more than we do because Al Qaeda is also going after them."
From the August 23 Washington Times article:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- who told the VFW conference on Monday that the surge is clearly "working" -- said yesterday that it has failed.
"It is abundantly clear that there is no military solution to the sectarian fighting in Iraq," the New York Democrat said. "We need to stop refereeing the war, and start getting out now."
This is getting to be ridiculous...mmfa is starting to look and act like Hannity.
She clearly said the situation has improved...with or without mmfa's typical wordsmithing, nitpicking articles...defending Hillary every time she opens her mouth.
She's a big girl and doesn't need an interpreter.
I agree with you on this one, she does feel the surge is working. Lets stop spinning this, yes its working, but it may be too late. Can we stop playing word games?
Agreed. As I said in an earlier post, MMFA is a pro-Hillary site and will bend over backwards to defend her while paying only lip service to the attacks against Obama.
That is why her staff clarified her remakrs because they were misinterpreted as saying "the surge is working". Despite the clarification, news programs are still twisting her words and from the posts below, no one cares or sees anything wrong with it. I wonder why?
I find MMFA very useful, and check it daily.
However, it does include a few too many stories defending Democratic politicians from various slights.
I would prefer that it focus more on refuting misinformation/disinformation than on partisan politics.
Yahoo! Groups : smygo
She said "tactics" not "surge"
Now I think most folks hearing that would have figured that she meant the surge. Perhaps in the future she'll be more specific so as to avoid a misunderstanding.
Word games. If she feels it is working that is her right, it will not change my opinion of her. How do we know it is or is not working?
JLyons,
I don't know that we'll ever get the real picture of what is going on..or whether the surge is working or not working. Of course the White House will claim it's working. And if given more time & troops & money it will succeed even further.
I'm fairly certain there will be plenty of disagreement about that conclusion from the Left, as well as from some military experts.
As long as the so called Iraq government continues to flounder...then, IMO, it's not working.
Well for one thing that Iraqi goverment is as inccompetent as FEMA after Hurricane Katrina.
You're right J, but of course politicians make these sorts of ambiguities on purpose. For then they can attempt to satisfy everyone. The far left base will not make the assumption you referred to, she knows it. And the middle, more hawkish folks, will make that assumption, and she knows that too.
Triangulation and vagueness are art forms for politicians.
...of course politicians make these sorts of ambiguities on purpose. For then they can attempt to satisfy everyone.
Great point Tommy! And Hillary is a great example of someone doing just that. She has to somehow satisfy the entire range of Democrats out there: Centrist/Moderates, Liberals, and the FAR-Left aka Moonbats.
Come on guys, it's clear that the surge is working. In light of this great news, there should be a surge about every six months, until all of our soldiers are deployed to Iraq. We should even do two surges at a time, because that would work twice as well! Then, once we surge the crap out of the enemy and they are in their 'last throes', we will be safe from terrorism at home.
Oops, except that there won't be any soldiers here to protect us at home. Oops, also, Iraq isn't the only country harboring and cutlivating terrorism. Oh well, at least we'll THINK we're safe. That worked for us up until about September 2001.
Support the troops! Impeach Bush!
Support the troops! Impeach Bush!
I do not think we are lucky enough for this to happen.
"...in some areas..."
"...in some areas..."
"...in some areas..."
"...in some areas..."
Words have meaning, people. "New tactics working in some areas" does not translate to "Surge is clearly working".
Give it a rest.
As MMFA, as well as other sources such as the neo conservative movement, what is happening is Anbar has nothing to do with the surge. The area started to improve in September, before the surge, because the US bought off the Sunis and got them to cooperate.
So when Hillary says the tactics are working in Anbar, she clearly does not mean the surge.
I think it wasn't that the U.S. "bought off the Sunnis" so much as Al Qaeda pissed them off.