The dishonorable presiding

Question of the day: Is Mike Huckabee really that much of an idiot, or is Ron Paul that much smarter than all of the other Republican candidates?

"Congressman, whether or not we should have gone to Iraq is a discussion the historians can have, but we're there. We bought it because we broke it. We've got a responsibility to the honor of this country and to the honor of every man and woman who has served in Iraq and ever served in our military to not leave them with anything less than the honor that they deserve," Huckabee said.

Paul then responded: "The American people didn't go in. A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the neoconservatives hijacked our foreign policy. They're responsible, not the American people."

Huckabee retorted that the United States is one nation. "We can't be divided. We have to be one nation, under God. That means if we make a mistake, we make it as a single country: the United States of America, not the divided states of America," he said.

"No, when we make a mistake — when we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people, through their representatives, to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake," Paul replied.

"And that's what we do on the floor of the Senate," Huckabee said.

And then it continued, and this is the bit I woke up to this morning on NPR:

PAUL: No, we've dug a hole for ourselves and we've dug a hole for our party. We're losing elections and we're going down next year if we don't change it, and it has all to do with foreign policy and we have to wake up to this fact.

HUCKABEE: Even if we lose elections, we should not lose our honor, and that is more important (inaudible) the Republican Party.

(APPLAUSE)

PAUL: We have lost over 5,000 Americans killed in -- we've lost over 5,000 Americans over there in Afghanistan, in Iraq and plus the civilians killed. How many more you want to lose? How long are you going to be there?

How long -- what do we have to pay to save face? That's all we're doing, is saving face. It's time we came home.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm so glad that Paul used the term "save face". Is that really what Huckabee is suggesting with his "lose our honor" comment? Is that what is really important to the people who enthusiastically applauded the comment? It is, and it shows exactly what this war is and has always been about to Republican voters: just a simple show of American power, one that allows them an elitist sense of righteousness in calling themselves honorable...and implying that anyone who disagrees is not.

For the record, I don't believe that American forces should leave Iraq. I didn't think we should have gone in in the first place, but now that we're there, we have a duty to do it right and make sure that the country (or countries) are left a better place. Simply: we need to clean up our mess. But not leaving Iraq has fuck all to do with the honor of our troops, ourselves, or certainly Mike Huckabee.

I really like Ron Paul a lot, but I don't think he's right: the American people wanted to go into Iraq. Overwhelmingly.

I will admit that Huckabee has a much better voice than Paul.