Sanders upends foreign-policy critique by Clinton experts: 'I was right' on Iraq

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Sanders upends foreign-policy critique by Clinton experts: 'I was right' on Iraq

After former US officials express ‘concern’ over Bernie Sanders’ ‘out-of-step’
policies on Isis and Iran, surging senator tells Guardian that war vote sill matters

Adam Gabbatt in Underwood, Iowa and Lauren Gambino
Wednesday 20 January 2016 00.46 GMT

Bernie Sanders pushed back against global-affairs experts backing Hillary Clinton who questioned the Vermont senator’s grasp of foreign policy, touting his judgement over her experience as he surges in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“On the crucial foreign policy issue of our time, it turns out that Secretary Clinton – with all of her experience – was wrong and I was right,” Sanders told the Guardian after a campaign event on Tuesday in Underwood, Iowa, freshly condemning his then-senate colleague’s 2002 vote to approve the US invasion of Iraq.

While conceding that he has fewer foreign-policy credentials than the former secretary of state, Sanders said he maintains better judgement.

“It is fair to say, in terms of experience, Hillary Clinton was secretary of state for four years and has a lot of experience, no debate about that,” Sanders told the Guardian. “But there is a difference between experience and judgement. Not only did I vote against the war in Iraq, I helped lead the opposition to that war.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a group of 10 former senior US diplomats and national security officials who are supporting the former secretary of state released a letter calling Sanders’s foreign policy agenda “troubling” and “puzzling”. The letter-writers characterized Sanders’s strategy to defeat Isis as improbable and his plan to normalize relations with Iran as “out of step” with the current adminstration.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/19/bernie-sanders-foreign-policy-experts-hillary-clinton

Earlier GD-P thread: Sanders' foreign policy is 'troubling', say experts who back Hillary Clinton

[FlatBaroque]

1. What these insipid insiders fail to grasp is the simple fact

that the only people who give a shit about what they have to say are people living in their bubble. The world has moved on.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. “out of step” with the current adminstration.

I didn't realize that a smooth continuation of someone else's foreign policy was a requirement.

So, if the last guy (or woman) was wrong in any way, then we're required to keep making the same mistakes forever?

Who knew!

[EdwardBernays]

3. Out of step

Is exactly what we need.

We need a completely opposite foreign policy than we've had for 50+ years.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. I've seen Clinton supporters on DU try to rehabilitate that fucking IWR vote.

Unbe-fucking-lievable.

[draa]

5. Follow the money.

Bernie is a pacifist and the Pigs of War will go broke.

Won't someone please think of the poor, poor, Pigs of War.

[scottie55]

10. Exactly

EOM

[MisterP]

6. well, whaddabout Honduras, Libya, and Syria, HUH?!

[bigtree]

7. like Obama

...he won't be able to use that vote as cover for any other foreign policy shortcomings.

Good for the horse race debate, but useless for those who actually make foreign policy their business.

[shawn703]

12. The important skill a President needs is to be able to review all information being presented

And make a sound decision based on the information. Only one candidate has shown himself capable of doing so.

[AlbertCat]

13. If the Prez has to be a foreign policy expert...

..... then why have a SoS?

Isn't that why the president has a cabinet? So he can get expert info and advice and then, like you say, make a sound judgement.

[WillyT]

8. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Eugene.

[scottie55]

11. Let's See - Reagan Trained And Supported Al Qaeda - Bush Founded ISIS

And presidents Sanders is going to have to clean up a bit.

Doable.