Here is how to answer charges Kerry is undermining morale in Iraq:

[hansolsen]

It is now six weeks away from the national election which will decide if President George Bush will remain as Commander in Chief of the U.S. military for four more years. I believe he should not be returned to office because the centerpiece of his first term has been the war in Iraq. I believe that war is unjust and unwise, and have opposed it from the beginning. I believe now is the time when those of us who hold this view need to speak out.

Some people believe that it is unpatriotic to protest a war when American soldiers are in combat. They want half the nation to sit down, shut up, eat our opposition, and watch the carnage mount, year after year, in silence. But when half the people in the country oppose what they believe is an unjust war that violates basic principles of right and wrong, we will never be silent. We were not silent from 1968 to 1972, and we will not be silent now. That is both our right and our obligation.

In launching this war of choice based on false statements about evidence of WMD in Iraq, George Bush ignored one of the great lessons of the Vietnam era, which is to never send American soldiers into combat when they cannot tell friend from foe, and where our soldiers face an insurgency that has the widespread support of the indigenous people. This puts our soldiers in an untenable situation. They are sent into battle every day in Iraq under rules of engagement where they cannot fire, unless fired upon first. That's irrational. That is not what the U.S. military is for. That is not how we won World War II. George Bush has set our soldiers up as sitting ducks in an Islamic shooting gallery. And for what? Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Saddam Hussein was no threat to us. World opinion turns against us by the hour. And old men in high places refuse to admit the error of their ways. I do not want this done in my name. There is no sense to it, for us or for them.

The American military forces in Iraq should immediately stop patrolling Iraqi neighborhoods, and be pulled back to fortified bases. We should get out of the way and let the Iraqi people settle their own affairs. We should abandon plans for permanent military bases in Iraq. We should stay only long enough for elections to be held, whatever form they may take. American soldiers should leave those forward bases only to stop genocide and open civil war in Iraq. If they come out on a combat mission they should come out with guns blazing and mow down everything in their path. That's the American way to wage war.

George Bush has this nation on the wrong track, and his policies are killing and wounding American soldiers every day, and are growing new terrorists by the bushel basket. We can change all that on November 2. Fellow citizens, together we must hold politicians in high office accountable for their mistakes. That's our job. Let's do it.