RHETORIC: Once again, Hillary Clinton is suggesting that her vote for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment was a vote for diplomacy. In fact, during tonight's Democratic debate in Philadelphia, Sen. Clinton used some variation of the word "diplomacy" eleven times in reference to Iran. [MSNBC, Democratic Primary Debate, 10/30/07, emphasis added]
REALITY: The number of times the Sense of the Senate section of Kyl-Lieberman actually mentions diplomacy: Zero. The final version of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that Sen. Clinton supported did not call for the use of diplomacy. While the "findings" section of the amendment included quotes from Secretary of Defense Gates and Ambassador Crocker about the usefulness of diplomacy, it also quoted Ambassador Crocker discussing the failure of diplomacy with Iran. The main portion of the amendment that declared and defined Senate policy did not mention diplomacy at all. An earlier version of Kyl-Lieberman did contain this reference to support for diplomacy:
Section 4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies"
However, before the amendment was passed by the Senate this language was removed. [S Amdt 3017, CQ Vote 349, 9/26/07, emphasis added]
Comments
Well, it's sort of irrelevant, really. Bush Two and his gang obviously define diplomacy as threats and intimidation, a prelude to an attack.
There's an old German saying, which I find particularly apt.
Kommst Du nicht willig, dann brauch Ich Gewalt
Loosely translated it says, "if you're unwilling, then I'll have to use force," putting the onus for the coercion on the refusal to be coerced--a perversion of free will.