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A Move in the Right Direction: Kerry Says Occupation Must End
finally, somone breaks ranks in the Democratic Party, and steps onto the right road, let's see how far he can walk down it
[US occupation in Iraq must end: Kerry
Wed Jul 16,10:35 AM ET Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry called for an end to the US occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) and criticized the administration's use of now discredited intelligence as a basis for launching the war.
"I fought in Vietnam, and half the wall -- half the (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) wall -- is filled with the names of people who were there because leaders were filled with pride and wouldn't make the right decisions," Kerry told NBC television.
"We need to get the sense of American occupation over with. We need to protect our troops. And that means that pride should not prevent this administration from going to the United Nations (news - web sites) and doing what they should have done in the first place," he declared.
Kerry also criticized US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s use in his January 28 State of the Union address of the erroneous claim that Iraq sought to buy nuclear material from Africa.
Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) Director George Tenet has taken responsibility for that claim and was to testify before a congressional panel investigating the matter later Wednesday.
"Remember the old saying, Harry Truman's saying, 'The buck stops here'? Right now, apparently, the buck stops at Langley (CIA (news - web sites) headquarters). And there are a lot of questions about the political input to this intelligence," Kerry told NBC's "Today" show.
"We have to see what happened."
The US senator for Massachusetts, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, also criticized the administration's efforts leading up to the war in Iraq, launched on March 20.
"I made it very clear that their diplomacy leading up to the war was inadequate," Kerry said.
"I said I thought the president should have even done more diplomacy before he went to war. I said to the president, 'Mr. President, don't rush to war. You need to build the large coalition necessary in order to win the peace.'
"And I said very clearly, winning the war was not what was difficult, it's winning the peace," Kerry said. "And I don't think the president put a plan together to do that."
Wed Jul 16,10:35 AM ET Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry called for an end to the US occupation of Iraq (news - web sites) and criticized the administration's use of now discredited intelligence as a basis for launching the war.
"I fought in Vietnam, and half the wall -- half the (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) wall -- is filled with the names of people who were there because leaders were filled with pride and wouldn't make the right decisions," Kerry told NBC television.
"We need to get the sense of American occupation over with. We need to protect our troops. And that means that pride should not prevent this administration from going to the United Nations (news - web sites) and doing what they should have done in the first place," he declared.
Kerry also criticized US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s use in his January 28 State of the Union address of the erroneous claim that Iraq sought to buy nuclear material from Africa.
Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) Director George Tenet has taken responsibility for that claim and was to testify before a congressional panel investigating the matter later Wednesday.
"Remember the old saying, Harry Truman's saying, 'The buck stops here'? Right now, apparently, the buck stops at Langley (CIA (news - web sites) headquarters). And there are a lot of questions about the political input to this intelligence," Kerry told NBC's "Today" show.
"We have to see what happened."
The US senator for Massachusetts, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, also criticized the administration's efforts leading up to the war in Iraq, launched on March 20.
"I made it very clear that their diplomacy leading up to the war was inadequate," Kerry said.
"I said I thought the president should have even done more diplomacy before he went to war. I said to the president, 'Mr. President, don't rush to war. You need to build the large coalition necessary in order to win the peace.'
"And I said very clearly, winning the war was not what was difficult, it's winning the peace," Kerry said. "And I don't think the president put a plan together to do that."
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Kerry is the same sort of Corporate Robot as the rest.
But the important thing is those like Kucinich and Sharpton are pulling the debate to the left, while Kerry's pressure from Dean being far right wing on Israel forces him to go left to offset from Dean, his closest competitor.
But a corporate robot is a corporate robot. Just because he got blocked into a corner and now squeeks in a different tone only means that he's getting desperate.
Vote Green.
But the important thing is those like Kucinich and Sharpton are pulling the debate to the left, while Kerry's pressure from Dean being far right wing on Israel forces him to go left to offset from Dean, his closest competitor.
But a corporate robot is a corporate robot. Just because he got blocked into a corner and now squeeks in a different tone only means that he's getting desperate.
Vote Green.
your analysis about Kerry being pupshed left is correct as far as it goes, but I also believe that Kerry is also recognizing increasing opposition to the war at the otherwise politically disinterested, grassroots level
Dean has really stumbled here, missing the oncoming wave, because he is so focused on his plan of moving back towards the center, a classic error, slavish devotion to the plan, while ignoring what is happening to real people
but, more to the point, Kerry made a good, tentative first step, but failed to speak strongly about completely removing the US/UK presence, and allowing Iraqis to move quickly to govern themselves
this was probably deliberate
Kerry is trying to move into that fantasy world, foggily suggested by Rosen in her Thursday Chronicle column, whereby the UN/NATO troops take over 75% of the peacekeeping operations, while the US still runs the country, attempting to attain the same economic advantages sought by Bush
even so, Kerry's statement should be viewed positively as it invariably gets simplistically reduced by the media to, "Kerry Says Occupation Must End", which gets fed to the public, which cycles it back into the political system with more emphatic expressions of opposition to the war and the occupation
Kerry will soon discover that you have to go the entire way towards relinquishing US control of Iraq, or you have to have 150,000 troops there because, as you say, Kucinich and Braun will keep pushing him in this direction
Dean has really stumbled here, missing the oncoming wave, because he is so focused on his plan of moving back towards the center, a classic error, slavish devotion to the plan, while ignoring what is happening to real people
but, more to the point, Kerry made a good, tentative first step, but failed to speak strongly about completely removing the US/UK presence, and allowing Iraqis to move quickly to govern themselves
this was probably deliberate
Kerry is trying to move into that fantasy world, foggily suggested by Rosen in her Thursday Chronicle column, whereby the UN/NATO troops take over 75% of the peacekeeping operations, while the US still runs the country, attempting to attain the same economic advantages sought by Bush
even so, Kerry's statement should be viewed positively as it invariably gets simplistically reduced by the media to, "Kerry Says Occupation Must End", which gets fed to the public, which cycles it back into the political system with more emphatic expressions of opposition to the war and the occupation
Kerry will soon discover that you have to go the entire way towards relinquishing US control of Iraq, or you have to have 150,000 troops there because, as you say, Kucinich and Braun will keep pushing him in this direction
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