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01/18/2004 Archived Entry: "Kennedy."
Kennedy.
This is what all Democrats should be doing, instead of taking pot-shots at one another. Let's remember who the enemy is in this fight.
War on Iraq was clearly coming, but why make this statement in September? As White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." The 2002 election campaigns were then entering the home stretch. Election politics prevailed over foreign policy and national security. The administration insisted on a vote in Congress to authorize the war before Congress adjourned for the elections. Why? Because the debate would distract attention from the troubled economy and the failed effort to capture bin Laden. The shift in focus to Iraq could help Republicans and divide Democrats.The tactic worked. Republicans voted almost unanimously for war and kept control of the House in the elections. Democrats were deeply divided and lost their majority in the Senate. The White House could use its control of Congress to get its way on key domestic priorities.
The final step in the march to war was a feint to the United Nations. But Cheney, Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz had convinced the president that war would be a cakewalk, with or without the United Nations, and that our forces would be welcomed as liberators. In March the war began.
Hussein's brutal regime was not an adequate justification for war, and the administration did not seriously try to make it one until long after the war began and all the false justifications began to fall apart. There was no imminent threat. Hussein had no nuclear weapons, no arsenals of chemical or biological weapons, no connection to Sept. 11 and no plausible link to al Qaeda. We never should have gone to war for ideological reasons driven by politics and based on manipulated intelligence.
Vast resources have been spent on the war that should have been spent on priorities at home. Our forces are stretched thin. Precious lives have been lost. The war has made America more hated in the world and made the war on terrorism harder to win. As Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in announcing the latest higher alert: "Al Qaeda's continued desire to carry out attacks against our homeland is perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11th."
The most fundamental decision a president ever makes is the decision to go to war. President Bush violated the trust that must exist between government and the people. If Congress and the American people had known the truth, America would never have gone to war in Iraq. No president who does that to our country deserves to be reelected.
Replies: 5 people speak up
Kennedy couldn't have said it better. I'm a bit disappointed in ALL of the Democratid candidates for their mud slinging towards eachother, but not NEARLY as pissed off as I am about Bush and his adminstration and what they've managed to do to our country. Considering the facts, I still don't understand why Bush and his cronies aren't on trial for war crimes!!
Posted by Disillusioned @ 01/18/2004 03:31 PM NY
I mean *Democratic*...
Posted by Disillusioned @ 01/18/2004 03:32 PM NY
im getting a bit tired of hearing democrats bitch at eachother about who is the bigger loser. the truth is that they are all big losers, and the fact that they are pointing it out about eachother just saves bush the effort.
i dont like any of them (with the exception of kucinich, who i honestly could vote for without any shame whatsoever. but then again im still stinging a bit from the last time i voted my conscience) the truth is though that any of them, with the exception of lieberman, would be a million times better than bush. it sucks that these assholes are our best and last hope....
Posted by justin @ 01/18/2004 04:30 PM NY
I'm really glad to see how senator Edwards has been running his campain without the cutthroat mudslinging of dean gephart and the others.
We're the good guys, we should really start acting like it.
Posted by Chris @ 01/18/2004 06:31 PM NY
If Lieberman somehow gets the nomination, I'm packing my bags, and heading to Canada. The lesser of two evils is still evil.
I totally agree that all the candidates (with the exception of Kucinich)need to man up, stop mud slinging (at least at each other), and present the facts as to why any of them would be better than Bush. As previously mentioned with the exception of Lieberman they all would be better than Bush.
Someone really should see about getting Bush tried for war crimes, or at least impeached for lying to the American People. Or is that impeachment process only reserved for 'Liberal' Presidents who lie to the American People about private events that don't concern them?
Posted by sellursoul @ 01/19/2004 01:45 PM NY
