The Case for Bernie (Part I)

There is a Ta-Nehisi Coates tweet that I think about way too often:

 When America acts innocent people die. Now are some of those actions necessary? Sure. Allied bombing campaigns in the European Theater killed maybe 600,000 noncombatants during the Second World War.  But when your opponent murders over twelve million people, it is hard to say that we didn't take the right course.
 How often though is that really the case? Yes, we had to drive old Dixie down. Bosnia? Kosovo? I would argue in the affirmative. Other then that though...

  As of mid 2011 (Before the rise of ISIL) the Iraq War  had caused roughly 460,000 war related deaths (PDF).  And in October 2002 Hillary Clinton voted for it. Bernie Sanders did not. Now obviously Hillary couldn't have known how many would die, but she was comfortable with at least some civilian casualties. She trusted the Bush administration, Bernie did not. In 2011, although intinshally skeptical, Hillary, as secretary of state, would push hard for Allied intervention in Libya. In the aftermath of the destruction of the (admittedly hideous) Gadaffi regime the interventionists celebrated too soon. Libya remains a place of extreme suffering, a suffering that Hillary Clinton helped cause. Bernie Sanders, despite being somewhat wishy-washy, opposed the intervention. As a mater of fact it would hard to name a case where Hillary didn't support some kind of intervention. Bernie on the other hand, is more hesitant.
  My case for Bernie is this: less people will suffer and or unjustly killed in a Bernie presidency then in a Hillary  presidency.
Now-depending on your various degrees of leftwing orthodoxy (and I would consider myself to left of Sanders, although not quite orthodox) Bernie is hardly perfect. He needs to talk about race and gender more, he wants to keep troops in Afghanistan, and is in general "Obama lite" when it comes to foreign policy. Although I would disagree with some of the interpretations offered in this four part 'Shakesville' series, its a great critical look at Sanders, and shows what he truly is: a politician, although better then most.
 But please, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.