In this video clip from The Real News, former Senator and antiwar activist Tom Hayden looks at the differences between the positions of the "antiwar" Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hayden points out that aside from the differences in Clinton and Obama's plans--both of which would only withdraw "combat troops" from Iraq--the media has failed to question the candidates on what they would do with the thousands of private security contractors in Iraq. Hayden says that the two Democratic Party candidates have no real intention of withdrawing all troops from Iraq, instead they are very purposefully leaving behind troops in Iraq. He argues that the plan is basically to reduce the number of troops in Iraq in order take the issue out of the public spotlight:
Oops, we had the wrong video embedded! It should have been an eight minute long clip from YouTube of Tom Hayden talking about the Democratic candidates and the media. At any rate, it has been fixed now.
For the most part, I agree with you regarding Hayden. He does do a good job raising questions that much of the antiwar movement ignores. That said, I think it is problematic that he says clearly in the video that he is going to vote for whatever Democrat is running for president. By admitting you are going to do that from the start, you weaken your ability to pressure them
I enjoyed the Tom Hayden video and thought it raised a lot of important points, and should be watched by a larger audience
Unfortunately your link doesn't go directly to the video, just to the real news site. I had to search for the video from there (which turned out to be a 3 parter). I'm not sure how the youtube video relates. Is that a mistake?
Anyway, I really enjoy Tom Hayden's thoughts on the peace movement. I don't agree with him 100% all the time, but I think he does a good job of forcing the peace movement to ask the hard questions. (I know you've linked in the past to at least one article critical of Tom Hayden's anti-war work, but I still think he's one of the good guys).
Another video of interest (although a few months old now) is his lecture on google video found here:
http://tinyurl.com/2hxuk2