Kerry blasts war

[seemslikeadream]

By Kevin Osborne
Post staff reporter

Nearly two years after President Bush visited Cincinnati to warn of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is taking the same stage to attack what he calls serious miscalculations in going to war with Iraq and in how the war has been conducted.
Kerry will deliver what his aides describe as a major speech about U.S. policy toward Iraq at 9:30 a.m. in the Grand Rotunda at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. In an advance copy of the speech provided to the Associated Press, Kerry portrayed Bush as a president who has broken promises and wasted money by going to war in Iraq.

"George W. Bush's wrong choices have led America in the wrong direction on Iraq and left America without the resources we need here at home," the text reads.

"I would not have made the wrong choices that are forcing us to pay nearly the entire cost of this war -- more than $200 billion that we're not investing in education, health care and job creation here at home."

more
http://www.cincypost.com/2004/09/08/kerry090804.html

[cthrumatrix]

1. it was a great speech ... Kerry was on the Offensive bigtime !

[Larkspur]

2. What's his contingency plan if Europe continues to say "NO!"

to sending in troops to Iraq and paying for a mess that we created?

That's what I want to know.

[gratuitous]

3. Well, it can't be worse than what we have now

That said, I imagine that the European nations see that a stable Iraq, which is not all that far away from them, is in their best interest. One way to get Germany and France on board is to do something the corrupt Bush administration has so far refused to do: Cut them in on a piece of the rebuilding action.

[grytpype]

12. Good point there.

We can't expect Kerry to magically fix Bush's Iraq debacle, no one can do that.

But we can expect Kerry to do better than Bush, because he's smarter and he has credibility and trustworthiness that Bush does not have.

[aneerkoinos]

13. It's not Kerry's piece to give

There's no business in the rebuilding action, locals have differing opinion and the survivability of western businessmen and in Iraq is not high enough to make it worthwhile.

Besides, insulting Euros by calling us corrupt imperialists is not a good way to have a new beginning. Don't project your own values to others. And even more insulting is to call us cheap, were not your usual poor old beggars! If Kerry wants deal, let's talk real business. End of petrodollar, oil trade in currency basket with 50-50 dollar-euro relative weight. Hows abaut dat?

[sangh0]

4. Of course you have that question

God forbid you express any support for Kerry now that he's doing what you've been demanding he do for months.

[Larkspur]

9. I've always said that I'd vote for Kerry in November

so my expression of support for Kerry has been for quite some time. True, I'm not a Kerry fanatic, like you sangh0, and never will be, thank Goddess. I'm not a fan of lemon-flavored kool-aid.

As far as Iraq, Kerry is not doing what I demanded months ago. What I wanted was him to vote against IWR back in 2002 and recently admit that the Iraq war is an immoral war. He still refuses to admit that our Iraq invasion was immoral.

[nolabels]

14. Is there a rebutal in the works?

I like how some on this board can keep track of other posters for months on end. Me, Myself can hardly keep track of my cat, so feel free to fire off some shots at me also, the bushbots love it.

<just a little off kilter sarcasm>


HAL 9000 or Bush? Cast your vote
http://www.anybodybutbush.org/vote.php?voted_id=11

[JoFerret]

15. A stable Iraq is in Europe's interest

A Kerry admin. has the chance to create the coalition to clear up the mess. (It's the oil folks).

[lovuian]

5. Bravo Applause!!!

Standing Ovation :bounce:

[donkeyotay]

6. It was a kick-ass speech

He handled it beautifully. From his scoring points off the heckler to making his points about his alleged flip-flop over war. Awesome! I give it a 10. Can you say President Kerry? I knew you could.

:toast:

[bemildred]

7. Excellent. nt

[unfrigginreal]

8. Very good speech

now, can someone in the campaign make sure that he doesn't appear to embrace the invasion from now till Nov 2nd please.

[PATRICK]

10. In the primaries

Kerry could go to friendly locals and media outlets since it was not hostile territory but Democrats. To penetrate the grass roots with hardened GOP barriers is not so easy.

Yet I am seeing the same media stampede as in the primaries when they were distracted by their own judgment into fixating on Dean. Under the radar Kerry simply went about getting the votes with no one in the sportscasters thronging and sniping at Dean paying the slightest attention.

Shame on you media. Fooled again. Just as the polls are NOT defining Kerry's defeat so too are the media, honest or otherwise, not seeing the real progress of the campaign.

And it is harder and not so decisive looking since to the national media, Kerry slogging through the local territories simply does not register at all according to their TV and blurb persona models.

Many people have invoked Truman so often and been proved as dismally wishful that the real thing is slipping by an unprecedentedly decadent national media. Oh yes, my stomach knots up at this slightly invisible theory, but instinct tells me that on solid ground, minus some national sensationalism, Kerry will be inexorably pulling away. Likely it will be as it was before SBVFT muddied the waters with the media stubbornly having to admit Kerry's progress without ever seeing what is definitely happening, not some grand surprise as it was with Truman and Dewey on election night.

Because it will begin to be not very close at all. The illusions of the solid Bush 45% will be held though way past the point of rationality. His votes are not solid. Ours will be.

Simply: where are the new Bush voters to replace what he has lost from an already losing base? There are none in sufficient numbers, so it will have to make the best of clouding up the "swinging" voters and empty minor shifts that might seem to favor Bush- the anointed champ.

[doc03]

11. Great speech and and Faux news carried it live, he took Bush* on

point by point. I hope some of the Repugs listened to it, I would guess Faux's ratings dropped like a rock in that time period. Kerry
really took the gloves off and it is about time!

[annxburns]

16. Update

For those of you who got to see the speech. Here is the write-up

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040...


This is good. KEEP THE FOCUS ON BUSH. That's how we win.

[Zorra]

17. The indisputable facts are Bu$h's worst enemy.

Bush Family Wounds America Below The Belt Line
by Thom Hartmann
snip---------
So how to respond?

Simple: tell the truth. And do it with righteous anger, as Joseph Welch did to Joe McCarthy on June 9, 1954, exploding another house of cards built on lies and bully tactics. (MP3 clip here) And tell the truth not just on behalf of the candidate, but on behalf of all of the American people and our democratic republic.

This sort of response will work most powerfully because the real victim is not so much Kerry as it is you and me, the American electorate, We the People. We - Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, Greens, Independents - are being wounded by the Bush lies, as is the vital and precious electoral process that generations of Americans have fought and died to defend.

We the People - through Kerry, the DNC, or third party 527s, or simply by spreading the truth one-to-another - must right this horrible wrong. We must expose the fundamental evil of Big Lie techniques in politics.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0907-15.htm