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2006-04-04 posted by vic link to this post April Fool's I'm sure by now most of you have caught on to my little April Fool's gag. In my 2006-04-01 post, I complained about politicians criticizing the President during wartime, and how such criticism hurts our troops and undermines the war effort - which is a common meme among conservatives right now. As proof, I listed a series of damning quotations. Of course, what I forgot to mention, and what I'm sure that many of you have recognized, is the all of the quotations listed were said by prominent Republicans about Clinton during Kosovo. Some of these same people now call the Democrats unpatriotic and, my personal favorite, "Blame America Firsters" for uttering the same things. To be clear, I don't think criticizing the President harms our troops and aids our enemies. I didn't think so then, and I don't think so now. Political debate is essential to Democracy, and anyone who would seek to suppress it by appeals to patriotism is the worst kind of asshole. "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is" - Then-GOP Presidential candidate Governor George W. Bush "What has happened is we have taken a political crisis and a humanitarian crisis and escalated it into a full military crisis... You have the same situation [as Vietnam]. Ambiguity, no stated, clear cut mission and then you are going to have to be there quite some time." - Then-GOP Presidential candidate Dan Quayle Mr. Speaker, this is a very difficult speech for me to give, because I normally, and I still do, support our military and the fine work that they are doing. But I cannot support a failed foreign policy...[The President] has never explained to the American people why he was involving the U.S. military in a civil war in a sovereign nation, other than to say it is for humanitarian reasons, a new military/foreign policy precedent ... Was it worth it to stay in Vietnam to save face? What good has been accomplished so far? Absolutely nothing." - Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay "America needs to quickly change directions and leave behind this chilling comedy of errors that has defined our foreign policy." - Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay "It’s also one more adventure in a whole line of adventures of failed foreign policy." - same House member "...we have a president I don’t trust, who has proven my reason for not trusting him: had no plan." - Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay "[the President] has decimated our ability to defend ourselves." - Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) "This is the most inept foreign policy in the history of the United States." - Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) "Many question the path that has taken us to this point. I have my own questions about the long term strategy of this campaign." - GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) "Obviously, we are not winning the war." - Senator Richard Shelby (R AL) "We are presently at war and it is an unconstitutional war." - Representative Tom Campbell(R-CA) "I don't believe we're winning it today." - Senator Richard Shelby (R AL) "And what are we doing bombing and attacking this tiny country that has never attacked the United States... I believe it is an unjust war." - Then-GOP Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan "I’m opposed to saying, ‘Let’s go in and win it,’ because I don’t know what win means. Do we go in and flatten it? ... I don’t want another Vietnam. I don’t want to have people say we’ve wasted a thousand lives for nothing." - Then-GOP Presidential candidate Bob Smith (NH)