Kerry says "false pride" holding Bush back in Iraq

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Democratic presidential contender John Kerry urged the Bush administration on Monday to seek U.N. support in stabilizing Iraq and questioned if "false pride" was delaying the move. ---

He said "my blood boiled over" when he read in the New York Times on Saturday that some in the Bush administration might consider it humiliating to go to the United Nations for help after bypassing the world body before going to war in Iraq.

"You don't make a decision about protecting your own troops and winning your objectives based on false pride," he said in a conference call with reporters. ---

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, said half of the names of the dead enshrined on the Vietnam war memorial in Washington stem "from the time that that kind of pride began to cloud the decisions in Vietnam."

Kerry said international help was crucial with American deaths continuing and the costs of policing the country mounting.

"Lives are at stake," he said. "We need to internationalize this and we need to do it now, we need to do it openly and we need to do it in order to defuse the sense of occupation and protect the troops." ---

[LauraK]

1. Kerry sounds like the brilliant Senator Byrd!

We could use a little more of that.

[are_we_united_yet]

17. Only Byrd had the guts to say NO to the war.

Kerry went with it

[oasis]

2. Bush can hardly go hat in hand asking "an irrelevant debating society"

for help. What the hell is Kerry taking about?

[lightbulb]

4. Maybe bush can talk Old Europe into invading...

Iran, Syria, and maybe even North Korea for us. Then we could focus 100% on Iraq.

:dunce:

[northernsoul]

3. Good for Kerry!

I'm not a Kerry supporter, but it's good to see him starting to throw a few punches back at B*sh.

[maryallen]

9. Equating Iraq with Vietnam ...

Good move by Kerry.

Now, repeat whenever and wherever possible.

[mac56]

5. Though I agree with Kerry -

How is the UN likely to respond? Might they tell *: "Look, we asked you not to do this. This is your mess, clean it up yourself."

[trapper914]

10. Or maybe they'll say...

...we'll send troops if you allow the UN to be a part of the WMD hunt. I still don't trust these guys when it comes to planting of evidence.

[ender]

6. Guess that the word "hubris" is too hibrow here...

cuz, chimpy wouldnt know what it meant.

[karlschneider]

7. I don't think it's false...he has enough to relegate 4 or 5 of the other 7

deadly sins to insignificance...
:eyes:

[w4rma]

8. Is Kerry finding his voice? (n/t)

[glarius]

11. The countries that opposed the war may resent having to bale Bush out of

the mess he has created....I know I feel great sympathy for the people of Iraq but it angers me to think that my country, which was insulted and alienated by Bush, should have to help straighten out the devastation he has caused....

[LauraK]

13. They will demand restructuring the reconstruction contracts.

Halliburton and the rest will have to bid against the civilized nations of the world. What a show that would be.

[mike6640]

12. It's more than just pride and humiliation,

I remember reading somewhere that the US and Coalition must turn over governing authority if the UN is involved in this way.....

Not so good for PNAC crowd.

[indypaul]

14. Doesn't Kerry realize that

this approach would also piss off his base support of
right-wing wackos that have criticized the UN since it's
origin. You know idiots like the one Georgia sent to the
Senate to replace someone who knows and cares what war
is all about. If only Prep H would work on that pain-in-
the-ass. Besides if we were able to sucker the U.N. into
this mess now, we still have Afghanistan and Liberia to
screw up beyond our capacity to handle. The current
occupant of the White House is the epitome of the saying
"Politicians are just like cockroaches, it's not so much
what they steal and carry-off (although this administration
seems to have no end to that either) it's what they fall
into and mess-up." I'm beginning to believe that Kerry
would be an excellent choice for the nomination if he
would announce a choice for VP (Max Cleland) and go into
the primaries as a team with the singular message to
Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief and his companion in crime to
"Bring Em On"

[onehandle]

15. More in the CNN Version...

Criticizing Bush on Iraq, Kerry draws comparisons with Vietnam

"I feel this passionately. I feel this very strongly. You can't look a mother or father in the eye when their son or daughter is lost, and tell them you did everything possible to protect them unless you're taking those kinds of steps," Kerry said.

"There are 147,00 American troops in Iraq, compared to about 13,000 non-American troops," Kerry said. "The whole world has an interest in a peaceful Middle East, and the whole world has a stake in our winning the peace."

"This administration did not have a sufficient plan -- they didn't have any plan -- for how to secure nuclear facilities, for how to secure Baghdad, for how to wind up winning the peace," Kerry said.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/21/kerry.iraq/

[nolabels]

18. What up with Kerry?

What was John saying several months ago, he changed his mind now? We know John says * lied, but didn’t we know he was doing that even before it got to the point of him squatting at the white house. Talk about false pride, don’t you have to admit you might be wrong (if you think you might be) before you start calling other to task for it?



http://www.indymedia.org/

Is it a good thing when us people on the left are the ones proved to be the daylight to a dark night?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/iraq-f26.shtml
Bush hands UN an ultimatum on Iraq war
By Patrick Martin
26 February 2003
The resolution presented to the United Nations Security Council Tuesday by Britain, Spain and the United States is an unprecedented ultimatum, not to Iraq, but to the entire world. The Bush administration is demanding unconditional support for the war of aggression it has decided to wage against an impoverished country that poses no threat to the American people.

US officials have begun campaigning for passage of the resolution, which authorizes military action against Iraq without saying so explicitly. American diplomacy on the question is a combination of threats and bribery.

Secretary of State Colin Powell was dispatched to China and Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton to Russia, two of three permanent Security Council members that are opposing the resolution and could veto it. Other State Department officials visited the non-veto-holding members of the council, including Angola, Guinea, Cameroon, Mexico and Chile.

As in the case of Turkey, whose support for the war has been purchased with $15 billion in US cash and loan guarantees—and the prospect of Turkish influence over the huge Iraqi oilfield outside the northern city of Kirkuk—there will be direct financial bartering for votes. The Los Angeles Times wrote Tuesday, “US officials also concede that their diplomatic push may end up having to include ‘incentives’ in the form of aid, particularly for countries such as Cameroon, Guinea and Angola, the three African countries currently holding rotating seats on the Security Council.”
(snip)

Of course we get ignored, yet we were the ones actually being the real conservatives. We called him on his lie and were proved to correct. :kick:

[Mari333]

16. False Pride?? No, the BFEE doesnt want to share the OIL

[snippy]

19. I like Kerry's line of attack.

The charge of false pride will ring true with many independent voters. Plus, more and more people, democrats, independents and some republicans want our troops out of Iraq. The democrats should argue that our troops be replaced with UN troops from various countries and that we should pay all of the associated costs of those countries. I would love to hear Bush explain why this is a bad idea.

[Nancy Waterman]

20. Kerry comes across as truly caring for our military men

which I think he does. It is a strong contrast from Bush who keeps cutting their benefits and stringing them along in an ill-prepared occupation. Bush can't really go to the UN because his Regime would indeed have to give up control of the country, and the war would have been a waste of time (given its true purpose). At some point, he may have to do it anyway, but it is a huge step, not just in eating crow but in accepting the defeat of the PNAC goals.

[snippy]

22. Agreed. Bush sees the military as political tools and props.

Like yard signs and bumberstickers.

[foo_bar]

21. it's an elegant denunciation

it doesn't "fire up the base" because it's both true and requires a second to process. I miss Bill Bradley too.