Democratic administration involved in build up to Iraq War...

[IndyOp]

How were so many Democratic Senators convinced to vote for the Iraq War Resolution? How could they have been fooled by the Bush Administration? A comment from John Edwards reveals that foreign policy personnel from a prior administration swayed him to vote for the IWR.

Replacing Repubs with Dems is not enough for our nation to make the changes we must make in foreign policy, national policy, ecology, economy... Once Dems or Repubs land in the seats of power they become power brokers who act, to a lesser or greater extent, in the interests of the military-industrial complex.

We need a true revolution of values, friends. If the people lead, the leaders will follow. We must lead.

Senator John Edwards about his decision to vote for the IWR:

"I made my own judgment. I made it based on what I heard in the Intelligence Committee based on conversations with military leaders at the time, based on -- and this is not insignificant -- based on meetings with Clinton administration leaders including people like Sandy Berger, Richard Holbrooke and others. All of that information led me to the conclusion that was wrong.

From my perspective it's important to hold Bush and others around him accountable for their misleading the American people, but I made my own independent judgment. And I'm responsible for that."

WaPo Interview with Edwards

[MadHound]

1. Just one more telling sign

That we're living under the two party/same corporate master system of government. Wake up people and smell the plutocracy.

[IndyOp]

3. To clarify my goal with this post - so we need to guide the Dems

back to where they used to be - when Eisenhower had the guts to call the military-industrial complex on the carpet.

And, by the by, his initial speech referred to the: "military-industrial-congressional complex"

Truth is All.

:applause:

[endarkenment]

4. "Eisenhower had the guts "

only while he was walking out the door.

[IndyOp]

6. Point taken. Now, who can carry his message forward? (n/t)

:hi:

[mattclearing]

13. Word.

A parting shot if ever there was one.

[MadHound]

8. The only way to "guide" the Dems, or the 'Pugs for that matter

Is to work towards, and make publicly financed elections a reality. Voters don't count for much, if anything, in the political equation anymore. Votes can always be stolen or bought. What really counts now is money, and lots of it.

Since corporate America has most of the money now, they can disproportionately affect the actions of our government. That's what has been happening on an ever increasing scale for the past sixty years. Take money out of the electoral equation, and that will put voters back into their rightfully deserved place of prominence.

Until we take money out of the equation, any other reforms are going to be Band-Aids at best.

[endarkenment]

2. The War Party is bipartisan.

I agree, and that is a major part of the problem we are confronting. The Iraqi malfeasance ran from Bush I through Clinton right up to the current gang of criminals. While the current regime has managed to commit crimes that are a whole order of magnitude worse than their predecessors, there is plenty of blame to go around.

My worst nightmare is that we recapture congress and the presidency and NOTHING MUCH CHANGES. And before I get nadered, 3rd parties are less than useless. We need to make sure that the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is controlling our party's agenda. At the moment it is not clear at all that this will happen.

[IndyOp]

7. Yep. Bush I / Clinton / Bush 2 *all* lead us into this war...

and the costs are of nightmare proportions.

"We need to make sure that the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is controlling our party's agenda..." -- that is us.

How do we make this a teachable moment? How do we get our neighbors and friends to see the big picture?

:shrug:

[endarkenment]

9. I don't know.

All I am good at is seeing the problem clearly. I am not very good at coming up with solutions.

[IsItJustMe]

5. It would not have mattered if the Dems would have been against it. They

were not the party in power to begin with.

[Rose Siding]

10. Should the minority always vote with repubs because they can't win?

[IsItJustMe]

11. My point being this. People seem to be real hard on the Dems. Why?

We make up 49% of the population in America and we have 6% of the power in congress. I am real tired of hearing the media bashing Dems for what the hell is wrong in this country when the Dems don't have any power.

Lay the blame where the blame belongs. Media please note: It's the Repukes stupid!

Just felt like ranting. Admittedly so, this nothing to do with the posted thread. I can be random at times. LOL

[radio4progressives]

12. We Dems Are Much More than 49% of the Population,

Unfortunately, out of nearly 300 million people in the country, 64% according to the U.S. Census turned out to vote in 2004, thought - I'm not sure i trust that stat - given the level of voter machine fraud ..

given that Mark Crispin Miller states from his research that 8 Million votes in Florida in favor of Senator Kerry simply disappeared into ether space ...

read the book listen to the interviews - can't make the assumption that Dems make up only 49% of the population. Also, Democrats own registration rolls show it's much higher, that registered Dems are actually the majority of the population so they say, but i don't know what those figures are.

[IsItJustMe]

14. You are correct. I have made the common mistake of buying into the msm's

bull shit. Thanks for the reminder.