Kerry: Missing in Action on Iraq (Salon)

[edzontar]

Missing in action

As the war in Iraq spins out of control, why isn't John Kerry launching a frontal assault on Bush's failed policies?

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By Tim Grieve

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/09/missingkerry/index.html

"April 9, 2004  |  As the war in Iraq seemed to spiral out of control -- with more than 30 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis killed since the weekend, with the charred corpses of American citizens hanging from a bridge in Fallujah and Iraqi kidnappers threatening to burn foreigners alive, with Shiite and Sunni uprisings making a mockery of Bush administration claims that Americans would be "greeted as liberators" -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry traveled to Washington Wednesday to deliver a major policy address at Georgetown University. His subject: the federal budget deficit.

The subject was much the same for the Kerry campaign all week. This was the week Kerry campaign planners penciled in budget talk, and they weren't about to let the war bump them off message. For much of the week, the only hint of Iraq on the Kerry campaign's home page was a small-type link to a speech Kerry gave in Iowa when Saddam Hussein was captured four months ago. On Thursday morning, the Web site featured a waving American flag and a milquetoast comment from Kerry minimizing his differences with the president and honoring the sacrifices of fallen soldiers.

And even when Iraq fit into Kerry's budget message, the Kerry camp steered clear of it. Explaining the absence of Iraq funding in a budget analysis the campaign released this week, Kerry surrogate Sen. Jon Corzine said: "We wanted to make sure this wasn't focused on the debate about whether we should or shouldn't support our troops."

Iraq is exploding in Bush's lap, but Kerry seems to be the one running scared. Although Kerry has made sporadic comments about Iraq throughout the week -- in a radio interview Wednesday, he called the war "one of the greatest failures of diplomacy and failures of judgment that I have seen in all the time that I've been in public life," and on Thursday he repeated his attack on Bush's unilateralist approach to the war -- he has not made the war a centerpiece of his campaign.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[wildmanj]

1. missing

sorry to say but john kerry is on the same side of the fence as bush is when it comes to iraq---look for the deeper meaning of why we are there in the first place---and its not oil

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. It's gonna take some real strategic thinking...

For Kerry to effectively speak out on Iraq and tell the truths that lie there, without giving Ed Gillespie and the repuke smear machine a lot of uncontested ground on which to launch their smears.

I suspect that he is waiting for more from the 911 commission and some further tipping point in Iraq to start talking.

[mobuto]

3. Because doing nothing is best at the moment

The last thing Kerry wants to do is say anything he doesn't have to say about Iraq. Iraq is destroying Bush on its own - it needs to outside help. Moreover, if Kerry were to come out guns-blazing, he'd just wind up seeming like an opportunist. Iraq will hurt Bush plenty, unless things change dramatically, and its just best to let it hang Bush.

[LandOLincoln]

5. Kerry IS speaking out on Iraq and has come out

with guns blazing--except it's Teddy Kennedy and especially Wes Clark doing the talking and the blazing.

Clark is Kerry's wartime consigliere and surrogate, while Kerry stays above the fray and avoids the inevitable accusations--expecially given his antiwar past--that he doesn't support the troops.

And as everyone knows, you take your life in your hands when you accuse Wes Clark of not supporting his beloved troops.

Just ask Faux's David Asman. :evilgrin:

[sangha]

8. Kerry tore into the Chimp on Air America Radio

about Iraq, and if the ratings are credible, hundreds of thousands heard it.

[Desertrose]

4. I think it is a concern

when the dem *nominee* can't/won't or is unable to say anything on the biggest issue facing us today.

This is no time for political speak....I really feel that if Kerry is unable or unwilling to be clear on this there really is no hope for a dem win in Nov.

Now is the time Kerry should be speaking up & putting Bush on the run. Instead the dems are allowing bush to call the shots all the way....and we have "a candidate who voted for this horrible mess and then refused to fund the soldiers" **-repuke spin ...but true.

I wish Kerry had the guts to stand up & say "yes, I voted for this war but now that more facts are coming out I feel we need to get our troops home as soon as possible and will do everything to further that end....."

but I seem to recall him saying he would "finish it".....
Please tell me this isn't like Viet Nam when it sure feels like it.....

Peace
DR

[BostonTeaParty04]

6. Bull!

Salon needs to get their timeline in place...

That georgetown speech was held the day of the Democratic Unity event in Washington. Dean and Kerry combined their supporters. Iraq had not gone to hell in a handbasket at that point (as far as we knew). The US/Bremer had not even shut down Sadr's paper yet.

I refuse to read any further of this article. The first paragraph is a SHAM.

Look, for the critics about Kerry... take some pride in the fact that we have a presidential candidate who can see the OVERALL picture, the longterm goals. Bush is hanging himself. Reality is the comment on Bush, right now.

If Kerry jumps in (like Dean might be doing right now if he were the presumptive nominee) and went all ape-sh*t about what is going on... that would give the bushies the opportunity to do what they always do: Turn the eruption in Iraq into a talking point, a political talking point. And the focus would stay on KERRY and not BUSH.

The World court is taking bush to task on this turn of event. Let Kerry weigh in when he knows it will do something other than give bush a campaign showdown...

And, fact is, we have no choice but to trust kerry's intuition on this. (Hey, we have a nominee who actually HAS and USES intuition...which requires wisdom.) I am sure he has a plan....you think it isn't lost on him what is happening to his successor soldiers? Not likely.

Trust... it's a lot to ask, given how much abuse the present us regime has dolled out. But we gotta do that.

Kerry took the nomination by working under the radar. And I bet that's how he made it out of Nam... working under the radar and striking at precisely the right time.

[sandnsea]

10. I agree totally

Particularly with this statement:

"If Kerry jumps in (like Dean might be doing right now if he were the presumptive nominee) and went all ape-sh*t about what is going on... that would give the bushies the opportunity to do what they always do: Turn the eruption in Iraq into a talking point, a political talking point. And the focus would stay on KERRY and not BUSH."

As long as Kerry stays out of it, Bush can't dismiss everything Kerry says as playing politics. Then the media stays on Bush about what he's going to do about this mess. Bush can't hide forever.

[madrchsod]

7. no need to now,it`s way to early

you still have the 9-11 , the plame "affair", and enron. so many ,so little time?

[sangha]

9. I can sum up that article in three words

"Kerry, Kerry, Kerry" :-)

[sampsonblk]

11. Kerry Did Talk about Iraq (Ramble alert)

Just yesterday I believe.

Hey, we gotta stick together as everyone has said. But I am praying that we don't misread what is going on here. The exit polls during the primaries told us a lot about our party and what's going on in America.

You say: Kerry took the nomination by working under the radar.

I say no. People voted for Kerry because they thought he was the best one to beat Bush. At least that's what the exit polls show. There doesn't appear to be anything special that he did to cause the wins. Bad stratey, and untimely gestures by Dean, plus Kerry's war record and experience. That is what did it for him.

We have to work hard for Kerry. I think its a tragic misread to think that he will win by running a good campaign. If it didn't work against Dean, it surely isn't going to work against Bush and his zillion dollars. We all gotta lend a hand and not rely on Kerry's campaign skill - which is lacking, to put it lightly.

[Cocoa]

12. why would Kerry make Iraq the centerpiece of his campaign?

Even Dean wouldn't do that. Why would anyone expect Kerry to make something so out of his control the centerpiece of such an important campaign? He HAS to win.

[Zomby Woof]

13. Better take it up with Dean

After all, he endorsed Kerry. When I want to listen to a Democrat with the balls to take on Bush (which is why I post on DU, to slam Bush, don't know about others' intentions), I listen to DK. DK hasn't endorsed Kerry like Dean did.

Looks like my critiques of Dean were right - he is a craven opportunist after all, and not as fervently anti-Iraq war as previously sold to his supporters.

[edzontar]

16. This has nothing to do with Dean.

Kerry is the nominee, and it is his burden, now, to lead.

[madfloridian]

18. Dean's comments on Late Edition last week.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/004169.html

SNIP.."HOWARD DEAN (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'd like some explanation, and I'd like some explanation from Secretary Powell about how he managed to present to the world the case to go into Iraq and now is admitting it wasn't true. You know, Colin Powell is one of the few people left in the Bush administration with credibility in foreign affairs. And for him to say that, I thought was shocking.

BLITZER: Let me interrupt you on that point. What he suggested was that his testimony, his statement before the U.N. Security Council on the specific issue of mobile labs, he says that was apparently now based on faulty intelligence. But he didn't say everything else was not untrue, just the specific reference to mobile labs.

DEAN: I know, Wolf. But when you put it all together, now we find out that the mobile labs allegations weren't true. It wasn't true they were buying uranium from Niger. It wasn't true that they were about to get nuclear weapons. There were no weapons of mass destruction. This administration has simply not told us the truth. And I can't understand why this isn't being investigated. This is Bushgate, which is far more serious than Watergate in many ways because 600 people are dead -- Americans are dead, in addition to countless Iraqis and over 2,000 Americans wounded, many of them permanently maimed.

What is going on in this country when this kind of stuff gets buried on page 6A, as it was in our local paper here this morning?

BLITZER: Well, let me just point out that there is a commission now that's investigating the WMD intelligence going into the war, which John McCain is a member of that commission. It will be released in March of next year after the election.

But there is a full-scale inquiry going on there, as well as in the intelligence committees in the House and Senate. So there are inquiries under way.

DEAN: Yes. I find it interesting, of course, that the inquiries are going to be put off until after the election. You know, if Bill Clinton were president today, there would be calls for his impeachment, there would be congressional investigations.

In fact, what's really happened is the right wing of the Republican Party, which apparently controls both houses, not just the House, is putting its party's interest just above the country's interest. We need a full-scale, open, congressional investigation about this.

The president of the United States took us to war. Six hundred brave American soldiers are dead, and we don't know why.

But we do know that this president was consistently untruthful, as was his administration, in telling us why we went to war...."END SNIP

I am satisfied with that response. Kerry advisors did not like the term "Bushgate" though. I liked it very much. Dean says Bushgate....Kennedy says "Bush's Vietnam".

[Alenne]

14. Kerry should stay missing in action

on the Iraq war. The focus should be completely on the Bush Administration.

[genius]

15. Kerry's letting the war speak for him. It's good strategy

Anything he says can be twisted as unpatriotic but saying nothing and letting the protestors and the war do the speaking is a good, workable approach.

[edzontar]

17. So, say nothing while people die, while we kill civilians...

Kerry could not do that in 1971, and I admire him for it.

I wish he would speak more clearly on the subject today.

[w4rma]

19. This is a very sensitive issue. (nt)

[edzontar]

20. I think he SHOULD enrage them if that is what it takes....

The war is a crime of the first magnitude.

It is the issue of the times.

Fuck the wingnuts....they will attack him anyway...why not speak the truth while it matters?

People are dying here....

[sangha]

22. Don't preten you care if people die

If Kerry were to speak out and make it a campaign issue, it would onl send the message that the Iraqi insurgents can affect US politics, which would encourage them and result in greater loss of life.

[edzontar]

23. OH right, I am only PRETENDING that I care about murder and death

RIGHT, that has to be it, it's all part of some "hidden agenda" I guess.

That has to be about the lowest thing i have ever heard from you, Mr. sangh0/a.


Do not project your apparent indifference to human suffering and cynical view on the human race onto me, sir.

[Moderator]

21. edzontar

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thanks.

DU Moderator

[edzontar]

24. Sorry-carried away....

And thanks--EZ