(Jim Himes on Shays, with some bio information courtesy of TH. - promoted by mattw)
Jim Himes, Greenwich's DTC chairman and member of the town's Board of Estimates and Taxation, published a guest commentary in Greenwich Citizen this morning that slammed Chris Shays (R-CT4) for his continued support for the disastrous war in Iraq. Titled "Time for Honesty on Iraq," Himes strongly criticizes Shays for backing Bush's escalation of the Iraq War. Jim is well down the road toward a decision to challenge Shays in '08.
Himes writes:
"In a speech before Congress supporting the 20,000-troop `surge,' Congressman Shays put forth a string of half-truths that shows the confusion of a man who was a conscientious objector during Vietnam who now finds himself mired in a war he helped to start."
Excellent point. Why hasn't Shays been taken to task for hyping this war and voting to send hundreds of thousands of young Americans to fight in Iraq, when he saved himself from combat when his draft number came up during Vietnam? After all, Shays was 27 years old at the time, and not a naive teenager.
"He celebrated the fantasy that police patrols have been transferred from American troops to Iraqi security forces."
"What really galls, though, is Shays' statement that if U.S. forces withdraw, they will do so `having been defeated, having lost to the Islamic terrorists who have made it very clear that this is just the beginning.' This conjuring of defeat at the hands of terrorists is dishonesty of a more sinister sort; a resort to the now familiar ritual of using fear when facts fail."
And:
"…this war was never about Islamic terrorists. Yes, they are there now, exacting a terrible toll in American and Iraqi lives. But this wasn't true before this administration's decision, cheered at every pass by Congressman Shays, to unleash the fury of ancient hatreds that we are now trying to contain."
And also:
"One detects a whiff of panic in his repeated assertions that he has visited Iraq 15 times and chaired 14 hearings on the subject. That he sees this as anything other than an indictment of his judgment and ability to learn is curious."
A former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Rhodes Scholar who earned a master's degree from Britain's Oxford University, Himes writes with authority on international relations. Himes is a specialist on Central American politics and economics, and a fluent Spanish speaker who has lived and traveled extensively throughout Central America. He is also an expert in Latin American capital markets, leading Goldman Sachs' investment banking operations for that region.
We should consider not only how Shays completely botched the handling of Iraq, but also worry about how badly he might botch the next crisis in international relations that arises. No more mulligans for Shays.
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