 On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Carroll: Iraq and the GOP 3
‘Knowing everything you know right now, was it a mistake for us to invade Iraq?”
For most Americans — myself included — this question is hardly a head-scratcher. Everything we “know right now” includes no weapons of mass destruction and a four-year slog without a happy ending in sight. Absent a dramatic shift in fortune, of course the invasion was a mistake.
But the question seemed to fluster Mitt Romney last week at a candidates’ debate. And so he refused to answer it, twice.
“Well, the question is kind of a non sequitur, if you will, and what I mean by that — or a null set,” Romney said. “ . . . I supported the president’s decision based on what we knew at that time. I think we were underprepared and underplanned for what came after we knocked down Saddam Hussein.”
Asked again, he once more mentioned non sequiturs and null sets as he clumsily stepped out of the way.
Is Romney worried about offending some voters with a forthright answer? Apparently so, since it’s inconceivable he doesn’t have an opinion one way or the other. Someone should tell him that it’s far more dangerous to insult voters’ intelligence than to merely say something with which they disagree.
To their credit, both of the other leading GOP presidential candidates responded directly, without prodding.
Rudy Giuliani said that even in hindsight, invading Iraq was “absolutely the right thing to do. It’s unthinkable that you would leave Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq and be able to fight the war on terror.”
John McCain also said yes, but offered a more subtle explanation. “The fact is that the [international community’s economic] sanctions were breaking down” before the war, he said. “The sanctions were not going to hold. We had a multibillion-dollar scandal in the form of oil-for-food. The fact is that Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction before on his own people and on his enemies, and if he’d gotten them again, he’d have used them again.”
McCain is right to recall the weakening sanctions and what Saddam would have tried to do if they’d collapsed. But toppling an aggressive dictator because he intends to develop weapons of mass destruction is far more difficult to justify than toppling him because he’s got them in his arsenal and might be disposed to assist a terrorist group.
Been up so long . . .
What would good times in Colorado actually look like? You’ve got to wonder after last week’s news from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that this state’s economy grew at a nearly torrid 4.9 percent in 2006 — which followed an also healthy 4.3 percent in 2005 and a respectable 2.9 percent in 2004.
Meanwhile, the jobless rate is at a five-year low and employers created more than 45,000 new positions last year. And yet some people still talk about Colorado’s economy as if it were struggling to shake off the tech-bubble bust.
When a state economist addressed a south metro economic development breakfast a few months ago, for example, she was anything but upbeat. According to a Rocky report, her concerns included “a sluggish jobs recovery in the past few years, a housing slump, worries about a drop in consumer confidence, a further slowdown in 2007.”
If the definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of declining GDP, what should we call three consecutive years of solid growth? Perhaps an opportunity to ignore the obvious.
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountain
News.com.
Ah, the old saga of the "deteriorating sanctions,"
Which were imposed by the UN Security Counsel,
Where the US HAS VETO POWER!!!
How were the sanctions going to be lifted over our objections?
Posted by Repugnants are Liars on June 12, 2007 09:48 AMI guess Mitt should of just told Wolf as Clinton did "I'm not going to get into hypotheticals."
Posted by Louie on June 12, 2007 07:07 PMUnfortunately, statistics can be made to say anything one wants...Just like the Georgie Porgie, the brat king and the current Republicans (what a misnomer...they are the antithesis of republic-ans...sice they did everything imaginable, excuse me, unimaginable, to destroy this republic) did to manipulate this country into a war and still playing the game to keep us in it.
Employment Statistics do not count those who are incarcerated, those who are under-employed, those who have given up trying to find a job and do count those who work for free
It's made up from extrapolation of poll numbers and not census numbers
Let's discuss those 45,000 jobs....They were offset by lay offs....Qwest, Title Companies, Mortgage Lenders...and then those self-employed store owners and small business owners as well as realtors, etc, who have shut their doors and are now checking groceries, stocking shelves, making telemarketing calls (I know many of them) bartending, to make ends meet. I know people working 3 part time minimum wage jobs to make ends meet and are just not quite making it
I for one got laid off in 2002 after 1 year having smoke blown up my skirt about being such a valuable asset - even got a nice little letter from the VP of the Corporation, one of the three sisters title companies in town, one week prior to my pink slip about being such an invaluable irreplacable asset to the company with hopes that we would continue to have a grand long-term relationship. I had to fight for 60 days to get my reimbursable expenses and was given bogus information by the HR Department on how to get assistance. They walked me out as if I was going to rob them blind and slammed the door in my face not even allowing me to adequately pack up MY belongings.
I spent the next year and a half studying for a license and picking up temp work because there was no job to be had in my field after 20 years of experience. I FINALLY got a job that paid decent enough as an indepedent contractor at 1/2 of the salary I know I was worth but since I am an independent contractor, I pay my own expenses. Now my "salary" is 2/3 of what it was just 1 year ago ... I have been looking for a better paying position for the last 8 months. Borrowing to stay off the street...At the age of 53, I have no retirement, no savings and making exactly 1/2 of what I did at the age of 30 with a $50,000 debt and nothing to show for it other than a survival...one charges groceries if the only way to buy is with plastic ;or pays taxes with credit cards since the first thing the IRS asks is, "do you have a credit card? We take Visa!"; or has to see a doctor since missing a day of work means no food that night or gas to drive to work or tires or antifreeze
So, I am employed as are many, many others who are now making LESS than ever but take it because I have NO other choice.
Wake up America...The middle class is dying and the rich are getting richer....
Thank you for telling me that the economy in Denver is so very healthy becuse it absolutely sucks. The homeless numbers are sky-rocketing, the middle class is shrinking and the poor are you and I.
Can't happen here? Just wait because this wonderful economy is being brought to you by people who are continuing to live off your backs and talking you into expanding your debt ratio every day...You gotta be in debt up to your eyes and the credit card companies can now charge 35% or more (loan sharking is illegal unless of course you are a bank) because you may have made a late payment on a utility bill or an ex-husband got a credit card through another company and walked off without paying it off and used your credit to get it (it can and it did happen); Have to own a home but the lenders are manipulating with new creative ways of getting people into expensive homes that they really cannot afford on a salary that may not be there within a year.....foreclosure rates are the highest this country has ever seen; Have to drive to work but the gas prices are through the roof and the cost of a barrel is not high enough to justify it...Exxon and the rest are making HUGE RECORD profits with no intention of trying to find alternative fuels, why should they?
The "Denver Economy" may not be in a slump but her citizens certainly are!
Posted by Cosmic Surfer on June 14, 2007 08:06 PM