Stephanopoulos just spent a whole segment on Iraq

[maxr4clark]

...as the biggest challenge facing America since the Vietnam War.

Is there anyone else out there who sees Iraq as the biggest issue for the domestic agenda, like I do? The money we are spending on Iraq is causing our deficit to balloon; it is promoting an expanded defense budget; it is keeping us from focusing the attention of the Congress and the discussion in the election on healthcare and job creation. The mitaken invasion of Iraq and the mismanagement of the occupation is THE issue this election.

How long will it take us to move past our economic and political problem in Iraq? The administration is now making plans for an occupation force of over 100,000 troops through 2006, without any credible evidence that it will end there. Iraq policy will dominate the political agenda of the next President.

What we need to be asking about the candidates is, how well will they handle the whole problem of finishing our involvement in Iraq? The candidate that knows the most about this is Clark. The candidate with a proven track record of ending a war well is Clark.

Kerry may have been a waar hero in Vietnam, just like Clark, but Clark has been managing large organizations effectively and working on problems just like the one we currently face ever since.

The chief executive we need this election is Clark. I believe Kerry would be a very effective VP, and could maintain focus on healtcare and job creation while Clark directs our efforts to address the issues in Iraq and regarding national security. But I don't believe Kerry/Clark can be effective with Kerry as President and Clark as VP. The one who takes the lead on national security and on Iraq MUST be the President. The one who takes the lead on getting policy passed in Congress MUST be the VP.

Please, do what is best for our country. Support Clark for President, and Kerry for VP.

[Tim_in_HK]

1. I agree!

But I already agreed before reading your post . . .

[Palacsinta]

2. Yes,........exactly what I've been thinking

Where is the money going to come from for any domestic program if we don't address Iraq, Afghanistan competently? Seems to me only Clark has that experience.

[democratreformed]

3. Yes. I would love to believe that the U.S.

can just go back and concentrate on all the domestic issues facing it today. Unfortunately, we MUST fix the mess we have created. I believe that we can do both at the same time with the right leader. That leader is Wesley Clark. The fact that he already has friends in high places in other countries will help make that part of the job easier for him, IMO. And he will not let the pressing domestic issues fall by the wayside in the process.

[Donna Zen]

4. Wes 101

Some thoughts from Wesley Clark:

"What was emerging was more subtle, a more or less informal constellation of interests among several states, including both allies and former adversaries, to frustrate and complicate U.S. policies and objectives that were increasingly seen at odds with their own interests. Fundamentally, this risked unraveling the political and economic structures of interdependence that have proved so favorable to the United States. In the narrowest sense, if foreigners should lose confidence in U.S. leadership and reject the implicit understandings and economic alignments that have led them--especially the central banks of China, Taiwan, and Japan--to accumulate dollar holdings, they could quickly diversify of out dollar assets, triggering a sharp decline in the dollar's values and significantly impacting our economy. Somewhere in the rising U.S. budget deficits, the balance-of-payments current accounts deficits, and the growing resentment of the United States abroad, there may be a "tipping point," as yet undetermined."

Sounds like we are almost there. More Wes on PNAC:

"...we were coercing and pressuring. Without a change in our approach, we were heading toward a less powerful and relevant America, regardless of the numbers of stealth bombers we deplyed or countries we "accessed." If this path led American Empire in the sense of more countries occupied by U.S. troops, it would lead to a poorer, more isolated, and less secure America."

And one more or why Krugman knows that Wes "gets it":

"Transforming frustration at home into action abroad has emerged as a pattern in democracies under stress. It has happened in ancient Rome, in the Netherlands, and in Britain. And like most distractions, it provided false reassurance and was followed by damaging consequences. In Rome, a republic was transformed into an empire, the proud citizenry reduced to a landless plebian class. In the Netherlands and Britain, the "venting" led to jingoism and war, and war to greater financial burdens that essentially undercut the remaining foundations of prosperity."

All of the above are taken from WINNING MODERN WAR, (186-188) a book that is well worth the read.

[mhr]

5. Understand Iraq By Understanding Peak Oil

If one is unaware of the peak oil issue, educate yourself now.

Bush and Cheney did not attack Iraq because of WMDs.

They attacked Iraq because of our dependence on Oil.

Try reading this perspective to get the big picture.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/013004_in_your_face.html

Then follow up with these links. This is all you need to know. It also the reason that many of our democratic candidates are still out to lunch.

Websites of interest include:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Home.html
http://globalpublicmedia.com/
http://www.oilcrash.com/
http://www.wolfatthedoor.org.uk/
http://www.asponews.org
http://www.gulland.ca/depletion/depletion.htm
http://www.dieoff.org/
http://www.oilanalytics.org/
http://www.greatchange.org/
http://www.oilcrisis.com/
http://www.after-oil.co.uk/
http://www.hubbertpeak.com/
http://hubbert.mines.edu
http://www.museletter.com/archive/cia-oil.html

Energy Resources
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/energyresources/

Alas Babylon
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlasBabylon/

Running on Empty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmpty2/

[maxr4clark]

8. I'd just like to remind DUers

Clark got involved with a company making cutting edge electric automobile motors shortly after retiring from the Army. These motors are an essential part of either hybrid OR hydrogen vehicles, which means he was supporting both near- and far-term solutions. He is as committed to energy independence as anyone.

[NashVegas]

10. Agreed - Iraq is the Symptom, Not the Problem

You have to look at it with Global Capitalism, not our cars' gas tanks in mind.

It takes energy to move products back and forth from China and the US and for that matter, every nation that relies on foreign trade.

[maxr4clark]

13. Yes energy policy is key, but

we can't get anything done on that, either, if our money is draining into Iraq. And I don't see that Kucinich has any credibilty for managing the process of leaving Iraq, any more than Edwards or Kerry, both of whom voted for IWR.

Clark's testimony before Congress, Sep 2002, shows how clearly he understood the situation in Iraq, even in the face of poor intelligence. His experience with ending the war in the Balkans via the UN and NATO gives him far more credibility than anyone else in the United States for finishing up in Iraq and Afghanistan. His committment to the fight against AIDS shows he has the right view of what America should be doing internationally.

Clark, Kucinich, and Kerry all agree on moving the country away from oil and toward renewable energy. As usual Kucinich advocates more radical changes, but they're all heading in the same direction, and I am looking for a prudent rate of change, not a radical one.

[RichM]

6. "Is there anyone...who sees Iraq as biggest issue for domestic agenda?"

That's precisely what Dennis Kucinich has based his campaign on. He even uses almost those very words.

BTW - is this program of Stephanapoulos worth seeing? I'm on the West Coast, & have to decide which morning media show to watch.

[maxr4clark]

7. Yes. I only caught a part of it, but good discussion. n/t

[iowapeacechief]

9. This IS Kucinich

I'm glad somebody said so.

[maxr4clark]

11. Kucinich would get my support if

he presented a set of proposals that could all be credibly funded at the same time. And if there was any hope of getting radical changes made in a Congress that is at least half Republican. And if he could convince a serious segment of America that he could be trusted to defend the United States in a time of crisis.

While I agree with the direction Kucinich wants to take us, I am looking for a prudent rate of changes, not a radical one.

[Bombtrack]

12. Exactly my thoughts, also Fareed Zakaria for sec. of state

I just watched it as well.

It seems, with people here, the only ones who have Iraq as there most important issue are people who are the Kucinich/Sharpton cut and run types.

But we need Clark. We need his head in the oval office, and we need his person to win this election

[gulliver]

14. Keep Kerry in the Senate!

He would make a good president, but Clark would be much better and much more likely to win in November.