Bloomberg on the Iraq war: some disturbing hints

[Truth2Tell]

Buried in a New York Times piece today on Mike Bloomberg receiving a charity award was some interesting reporting on where the mayor stands on the war. I hadn’t heard about his Laura Bush appearance before today. The article also quotes Bloomberg aides as saying the mayor has been deliberately silent on the war to date because to say anything (read: to take a position) “would be a form of grandstanding for which he has no taste.”

Or maybe it would alienate some Americans?

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/23/nyregion/23about.html?_r=1&oref=regi&ocid=81&incamp=ts:chall_article_trial&headline=A+Mayor+Often+Ill+at+Ease,+and+Usually+Muted+on+Iraq&
(gotta pay or get the free trail)

A Mayor Often Ill at Ease, and Usually Muted on Iraq
By Jim Dwyer
June 23, 2007

…In May 2004, a year after the invasion, Mr. Bloomberg served as host to Laura Bush, who had come to New York in an effort to rally support for the war effort. Mrs. Bush visited a memorial for Sept. 11th victims. Standing next to Mrs. Bush, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, Mr. Bloomberg, right, suggested that New Yorkers could find justification for the war at the World Trade Center site, even though no Iraqi is known to have had a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Don’t forget that the war started not very many blocks from here,” he said that day in 2004.

- snip-

… In his speech, Mr. Bloomberg remarked on the sacrifice of soldiers and what he implied was the ingratitude of people opposed to the war.

“We shouldn’t forget that we have young men and women overseas fighting and dying, sadly, so that we can protest,” he said. “I sometimes think young protesters don’t realize that their right to protest is not something that they would have elsewhere, and it’s a right that has to be fought for continuously.”

[LyndaG]

1. Not surprised

He gave a big fundraiser for Lieberman's reelection last year, so I figured Bloomberg was an Iraq Hawk.

[Truth2Tell]

2. More than that, he's saved Lieberman's bacon

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3332744

[madfloridian]

3. Long article...he is working with the DLC and supported Lieberman.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3332744&mesg_id=3332744

[otohara]

4. Here's More From Village Voice Article on Bloomberg/Iraq/bin Laden

Rudy Giuliani volunteered to pull the switch on Osama bin Laden himself. But Mike Bloomberg has barely mentioned him, referring to him once in four years, and even then, in a joking aside. Asked a week before the first anniversary of 9-11 in 2002 where a missing iconic flag raised over the Trade Center wreckage might be, Bloomberg said he didn't have any idea. "I don't know where Osama bin Laden is either," he quipped. That was it. The same for Al Qaeda itself.

It has become a veritable axiom that the Bush administration's Iraq fixation has diverted it from apprehending bin Laden, but the mayor of the city Osama savaged has yet to utter an encouraging word about the half-hearted pursuit, much less critique it. In fact, he recently tweaked Fernando Ferrer as a death penalty flip-flopper when Ferrer, very much unlike Mike Bloomberg, raised the specter himself, saying he'd make bin Laden an exception to his "moratorium" on executions. Bill Cunningham, senior adviser to Bloomberg's campaign, says he "can't think of the circumstances where the subject of bin Laden would come up," an echo of the startling Bush declaration that he doesn't "spend much time on bin Laden, to be honest with ya."

Democrats like John Kerry in 2004 had no trouble figuring out Osama's continuing relevance. Ferrer told the Voice: "Bush has largely changed the subject. I said during the 2004 campaign that we had more cops at Madison Square Garden for the convention than we had troops in Afghanistan looking for this guy. Bloomberg has pulled his punches on Bush and everybody who's hurt this city."

snip

When Laura Bush came to New York in May 2004 to dedicate a public park to those who died on 9-11, Bloomberg followed her defense of the Iraq war with his own. "Let me add something to that," he said. "Don't forget that the war started not very many blocks from here." The Times reported that the mayor was "promoting one of the notions that is central" to the war's rationale, namely that it's "justified by what happened on Sept. 11."

In September 2004, he said to applause from a small Staten Island organization: "I'm voting for George W. Bush and it's mainly because I think we have to strike back at terrorists. To argue that Saddam Hussein wasn't a terrorist is ridiculous. He used mustard gas or some kind of gas against his own people."
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0542,barrett1,68949,5.html

[terisan]

5. Alas, sounds like a stealth middle east warmonger.

Lieberman thought Bloomberg's Independent registration was a great idea. I wonder if they are positioning Bloomberg to launch a campaign for president in the event Democrats select an anti-war candidate?