REALITY CHECK: OBAMA AND WAR

JUSTIN RAIMONDO, ANTIWAR - Compared to his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama is the antiwar candidate – which tells us everything we need to know about the Democratic Party. . . The Hollywood debate made this comparison shopping all the more necessary when it came time for Hillary to defend her vote to authorize the Iraq war – which she did, albeit incoherently. Obama took out after her and did quite an effective job of summarizing what is wrong with the prospect of her going up against John McCain:

"The legislation, the authorization, had the title An Authorization to Use Military Force, U.S. Military Force, in Iraq. I think everybody, the day after that vote was taken, understood, this was a vote potentially to go to war. I think people were very clear about that, if you look at the headlines.". . .

In spite of Bill Clinton's recent attempt to revise his own history in this regard, he endorsed the war in an interview with Time magazine, during the publicity blitz for his memoir, My Life, in the summer of 2004: "I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the Left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the UN inspections were over." Clinton bought into the "weapons of mass destruction" angle and averred that after 9/11, the president had no choice but to make sure that such weapons stayed out of al-Qaeda's hands. "That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for." Unaccounted for – albeit destroyed – because, as president, Bill pulled the inspectors out to make way for his impeachment-inspired bombing.

I am surprised and delighted to see that Obama is framing the Iraq question in terms of the coming conflict with Iran. He is alert to the danger, and he is also good on "mission creep," which is a good term to introduce – or reintroduce. But I was especially impressed with his call for a fundamental reevaluation of our foreign policy stance:

"I don't want to just end the war, but I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place. That's the kind of leadership I intend to provide as president of the United States."

Will Obama deliver? It's possible, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

You'll note how, earlier in his remarks, he framed his dissent from the Iraq war in terms of the urgency of pressing problems elsewhere: Pakistan, which he once said we might have to invade, was specified, along with our "neglect" of Latin America. "China," he breathlessly confided, "is strengthening" – probably because they're investing their money in productive enterprises rather than a lot of costly imperial pretensions. . .

This does not amount to a fundamental reappraisal of our basic foreign policy stance, but it is enough of a revision to satisfy anyone who is, like me, hungry for some sign of change in our disastrous foreign policy. It is a policy that is not only discrediting us but also bankrupting us, even as it rationalizes and sets the stage for the most serious assault on our constitutional form of government since the Civil War. If Obama can stop our forced march along this path, and even turn us around, then that alone makes him worth supporting – but, as I said, I wouldn't put much faith in this possibility. I see no attempt on his part to articulate a comprehensive critique of American foreign policy, never mind challenge the conventional wisdom of the past 50 years.

Obama's advisers are culled from the Clinton administration, and his campaign is claiming to be more Clintonian than Hillary's when it comes to foreign policy. Indeed, we'll probably see more "humanitarian" interventions with Obama as commander in chief. It's the same old gang of Washington policy wonks who make up his foreign policy advisory team. . .

Number-one influential adviser: Samantha Power, whose book on why America ought to go around the world preventing "genocide" is a bestseller among the do-gooder set. According to her lights, we didn't intervene in the Balkans quickly enough, or for the right reasons, and we should have been at least knee-deep in Darfur by now. . .

Obama will gladly ride the antiwar wave – in an election that wasn't supposed to be about the war, at least according to our chattering classes – all the way to the White House. Whether he'll deliver is another matter altogether. I tend to think not. . . What I see coming down the pike with Obama is more of the same old interventionist tripe that has been disproved, discredited, and disgraced so many times before, yet keeps coming back at us.