March 9, 2003
BIGGEST FAILURE OF DIPLOMACY IN 30 YEARS? (via Tacitus):
Harkin: I was fooled (Des Moines Register, 3/7/2003)
Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said Thursday that if Congress were voting now on its resolution authorizing the president to take military action against Iraq, he would oppose it. . . ."In my adult life, with the exception of Vietnam, this has been the biggest failure of diplomacy we've had," said Harkin. . . .
Harkin, who at the time was in a re-election race against former Rep. Greg Ganske, was one of 29 Senate Democrats who backed the resolution. . . .
Who'd have suspected that Harkin's support for the war wouldn't continue after the election? Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 9, 2003 11:48 PM
I am constantly amazed by the Democrats habit of saying worse things about themselves (somewhat opaquely, to be sure) then I would ever say about them.
Posted by: David Cohen at March 10, 2003 9:19 AMThis "failure of diplomacy" talk mystifies me. How can a failure to prove the obvious to the obtuse, or the corrupt, be our failure?
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw at March 10, 2003 11:32 AMJeff - The purpose of diplomacy is to avoid war. We're going to war. Ergo, diplomacy has failed.
Posted by: pj at March 10, 2003 11:36 AMLooks more to me like 54% of Iowa's voters were fooled.
Posted by: AC at March 10, 2003 1:00 PMPJ -
That may be, but it is folly to expect anything different from the U.N., where certain parties remain oblivious to facts, and nearly all parties stick to narrow self-interests. Harkin would prefer, perhaps, Munich 1938 all over again, since everybody slapped each other on the back and passed out cigars for a job well done?
Jeff -- precisely -- Munich 1938 is exactly what he prefers.
Posted by: pj at March 10, 2003 1:24 PMI used to vote 90% Democrat and about 10% other candidates. This past election reversed the trend. Looks like I should have just voted a straight ticket as Harkin was one of two Democrats I voted for.
Posted by: nordic at March 10, 2003 2:32 PMNordic
Welcome to the dark side. We're happy to have you. But why don't the Democrats see this? I would think that the lesson "soft on defence = political suicide" would be the national party slogan by this point.