Another awesome article at TomPaine.com

[ProSense]

Snip...

A preview of that drama played out at the Take Back America conference in Washington, sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future, where Kerry was cheered and Hillary booed (amid hisses and catcalls to “bring them home”). It’s one more sign that the apparatus of Bill and Hillary Clinton, which holds together the center of the party, simply isn’t willing to challenge Bush on Iraq, Iran or the war on terrorism.

Kerry, in an effort to turn the tables on Republicans, introduced a resolution in the Senate this week calling for the immediate withdrawal of nearly all U.S. forces in Iraq. The plan, according to the senator’s website , calls for “the redeployment of U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by the end of 2006. Only U.S. troops essential to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces would remain.” Kerry also calls for the internationalization of the conflict:

The President (must) convene a summit that includes the leaders of the new Iraqi government, leaders of the governments of each country bordering Iraq, representatives of the Arab League, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, representatives of the European Union, and leaders of the governments of each permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to reach a comprehensive political agreement for Iraq that addresses fundamental issues including federalism, oil revenues, the militias, security guarantees, reconstruction, economic assistance and border security.

Kerry’s got the right idea. My guess is that if Kerry’s plan were put forward to voters as the core of the Democratic Party’s 2006 election platform, the Republicans would be routed. Not only is that the smart thing to do politically, but it’s the moral thing to do as well. The U.S. presence in Iraq has become an unspeakable moral blot, the scene of war crimes, devastation and a clumsy (and as yet unresolved) effort to consolidate the U.S. empire in southwest Asia. The issue is not whether the war is “winnable.” The issue is that America has no business winning it. Imperial wars can be won. But they don’t deserve to be won.


http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/06/14/bushs_iraq_offensive.php

[jillan]

1. One of my favorite lines that Kerry says about this war

Is when he talks about the Vietnam Memorial, and all of the names that were added AFTER the adminsitration knew it was a mistake. Those words hit hard.

I'm so glad people are waking up and listening to Kerry again.

[karynnj]

2. I think he is right on the highlighted comments at the bottom.

It's never good to draw inference from one person, but I was struck by how far my dad has moved on the war in the last year. A year ago, he and my mother were surprised that I still had my Kerry sticker on the car and mystified when I said I hope to replace it with a Kerry 08 sticker. The main reason they disliked Kerry was that he didn't support the war.

Last week, I was speaking to my dad. He had supported the war as necessary, seeing WWII as the the analogous situation. (He was about a year too young for WWII himself). Last week, he was telling me about talking to the grandson of a very close family friend who just returned from Iraq. My dad's view was that we had to get out of there, it's a civil war. (He still feels "sorry" for Bush, because some of the people who supported it when it started are against him now. I did mention that Bush lied and the bigger problem is that his current actions are not in line with a goal of getting out. I assume they think Kerry had been for the war in 2002.)

I would assume that someone from that generation who bought the war in the first place for all the fake patriotic reasons and 911 that the Bush people pushed would be among the hardest to win over and if he's typical that group may be turning.

Kerry's comments on the Vietnam politicians who continued the war to save face has been proven to be true. Kerry as a powerful politician today clearly knows why some of them support it today. Kerry's plan with both the diplomacy and the recognition that we can't even fight, much less win a civil war is very sellable. It's a last ditch effort to fix things while constraining our loses.

[ProSense]

3. Interesting, thanks for sharing the story.

I can see where a supporter would have trouble letting go of sympathy for Bush. It's not really all that important that they do. If the real story came out (an official hearing), I know it would shake some of them.

I completely agree about Kerry's role!