[Cross-posted at Daily Kos and Huffington Post]

  I came here last week to ask you to join me in defending Harry Reid from the attacks of the right. And it’s important to do that because our party needs us to stick up for each other.

But it’s not enough to defend. I used to always say that I was tired of life in the minority in the Senate because I was tired of just stopping bad things from happening, I wanted to make things happen that reflected the hopes and aspirations of the people I cared about.

So now we have this Democratic Majority which a lot of folks fought and scrapped and gave their all to build – so I know I’m not alone here when I say: it’s time to go on offense—not just fight back but lead the fight for what’s important.

We are not going on offense for petty political reasons, not partisanship for politics’ sake, but because there are lives at stake here and a failed policy in Iraq to turn into something that makes sense morally and militarily. <!-more-> But something stands in the way, and I don’t mean President Bush. To no one’s surprise, he vetoed the money for our soldiers and a new course in Iraq. Long ago he doubled down with the Wolfowitzes and the Perles and the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds of the neoconservative movement. Yes, the Congress voted to set a deadline to change course in Iraq, hold squabbling Iraqi politicians accountable, and give our troops the money they need. And yes, the American people are clamoring for this change. The President vetoed it, anyway.

But the President couldn’t remain in his ideological bunker without a whole host of enablers. It is Republican Senators who are blocking a change in course in Iraq and enabling the President; many who claim to be “independent” are in fact acting as a big roadblock to a real change of course.

But just as last year you defeated the Rubber Stamp Republicans, now it’s time to take on these Roadblock Republicans and show them the pressure a committed American public can put on them. And maybe, if we put enough pressure on the right places, they’ll rethink supporting the President over the change of course our troops deserve.

So, we’re announcing a new kind of activism campaign, one not easily done without the new progressive infrastructure provided by our friends and partners at ActBlue. It’s a combined fundraising/email campaign, where you can already contribute to the defeat of some key Republicans, and then let them know what you are doing and why. When you speak in the language of grassroots pressure, I assure you they will hear what you say.

We’re targeting four Senators with this at first. The first three I’ll mention are already top races for 2006. Those are Senators Coleman, Sununu, and Collins, all from states that voted for me in 2004 and want change in Iraq today. But our fourth might be the most important of all: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The other three are great targets, but going after McConnell is getting to the heart of the matter. McConnell has been a bulwark of the GOP leadership and if we can distract, or even defeat him, with a tough electoral challenge in 2008, we’ll send a clear message that – just as Jim Webb defeated the supposedly undefeatable George Allen—no Senator is safe if they defend a broken policy rather than stand for change.

So go to this page we set up with ActBlue and contribute to ActBlue’s Democratic Nominee fund in those four states. Then—and this might be the most important part—follow the link to a page we set up where you can type in a message to be delivered to each Senator you contributed against with a subject line designed to get their attention: “I just contributed against you.” And, since it’s for whoever the Democratic nominee may be, it can help recruit the best candidates in a race, like Kentucky, where a Democrat may have felt like they’d be at too much of a financial disadvantage.

The time for the Democratic Party to play defense is over; it’s time to go on offense and force the change of course that America needs. This President continues to be stubborn and wrong; we must stubbornly remain in this fight because we are right—and we’re not about to sit around and let others dictate our future anymore.

So go here to contribute, and then here to send them a message.

And let them know that this is only the beginning. We’re going to fight this fight as long as necessary to get our country back on track.

[UPDATE: video of Senate floor speech and Situation Room added]

JK spoke out several times yesterday about Iraq and the President’s veto of the funding bill. First, in two short statements, then on the floor of the Senate and then in a conversation with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. His point is clear.

Statement:

“By vetoing this bill, the President is ignoring the majority in both the House and Senate who voted to end the disastrous open-ended Bush policy by setting a sensible deadline for the redeployment of troops,” Kerry said. “President Bush is unwilling to recognize reality. It’s as if he still believes the version of events pedaled by Vice President Cheney. He refuses to set firm benchmarks tied to a redeployment because he is still unwilling to force the Iraqi government to make the political compromises needed to end their civil war. President Bush asks too little of Iraqi politicians while asking for the greatest sacrifice from American troops.

“The irony of President Bush declaring “mission accomplished” in Iraq four years ago today was not lost on anyone in Congress. What the president doesn’t understand is that the only way to actually accomplish the mission is to change the strategy. More of the same won’t cut it. Congress has done what this administration has stubbornly refused to do for years – accept a new strategy, get tough with the Iraqis and bring our heroes home. No matter how many times the President vetoes this plan, we will continue to fight for a new policy.”

From an AP article in The New York Times:

’’President Bush asks too little of Iraqi politicians while asking for the greatest sacrifice from American troops. The irony of President Bush declaring ‘mission accomplished’ in Iraq four years ago today was not lost on anyone in Congress. What the president doesn’t understand is that the only way to actually accomplish the mission is to change the strategy. More of the same won’t cut it.’’—Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

  Excerpt from a speech made on the floor of the Senate (from remarks as prepared per The Democratic Daily):

Mr. President, four years ago today the President stood on an aircraft carrier underneath a banner that read “mission accomplished” and declared that major combat operations in Iraq were over.

When he spoke those words, 140 American troops had been killed in Iraq. Since then, over 3,200 more American troops have given their lives. Just today we learned that April was the deadliest month this year — with 104 Americans dead. With every passing day, it becomes more obvious that the President should really have said “my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq are just beginning.” On that day he should have had a plan to match rhetoric with reality. But we are where we are, and it is even more tragically clear to all but a few that, if we want to accomplish our mission, we must change course.

In the past four years, we have lost at least 3,342 of our best young men and women, and nearly 25,000 more have been wounded, many severely. We have spent nearly $400 billion dollars, and the cost is rising at a rate of over $2 billion per week – with no end in sight. Admiral William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, recently said: “we are losing ground every day.” And even General Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, now says that we can expect the situation to get worse before it gets better.

And we know from our intelligence agencies that the war in Iraq has increased the threat of terrorism, by creating a breeding ground for terrorists that did not exist before the invasion, and by serving as a rallying point for extremists around the world. In fact, the State Department’s annual terrorism report, released yesterday, shows that terrorist attacks worldwide were up 25 percent last year – after increasing nearly fourfold the year before.

We are less loved by our friends and less feared by our enemies—and less safe as a result. We are less united at home and less respected abroad—and less strong as a result.

We cannot bring back the over 3340 American lives already lost, but we need to find a responsible strategy to bring our troops home while preserving our fundamental national security interests in the region .

Instead, the President is going to veto crucial funding for the troops passed by both houses of Congress that gives our soldiers all that they need to complete the mission and receive the care they deserve once they get home. The President is going to veto it, and then try to pin the blame on those who have pushed for a new direction.

Instead of pressuring Iraqi politicians, this Administration is practicing the politics of division and derision here at home— a brand of American sectarianism that undermines the national unity required to make decisions of war and peace. Just last week, Vice President Dick Cheney accused Senator Harry Reid of putting politics ahead of our national security. A Vice President who pioneered the politics of fear, who oversaw the politicization of the intelligence used to mislead the country into war, who claimed that we’d be greeted like liberators, who told us the insurgency was in its last throes, and who continues to insist that everything is going just fine Iraq – actually impugned the integrity of the Senate’s Majority Leader because he’s standing strong for a new direction in Iraq.

So if the President insists on continuing down the wrong path, Congress needs to be just as resolute in demanding the right way forward for our troops, for our country, and for the Iraqis themselves. We must continue fighting for legislation that gives us the best chance to succeed and bring our troops home.

Four years after “mission accomplished”, it’s long past time we acknowledge the implications of what Gen. Petraeus and every other military commander, the Secretary of State, and even the President have told us: there is no military solution to the violence in Iraq –only a political solution. We must take those words to heart and act on them.

It’s time we start measuring progress on the ground in Iraq by the one metric that will ultimately determine our success or failure: whether Iraqis are making the tough political compromises necessary to keep their country together.

The rest of the remarks as they were prepared are available at The Democratic Daily. <!-more-> UPDATE 2:

  From The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

BLITZER: What about the power of the purse? Why not simply stop the funding for the war, put a specific hard timeline, get the votes and bring the troops home as a result of that?

KERRY: I don’t think it’s that simple. I think every one of us has an understanding of the complexity of the region and the dangers in the region. We’re not trying to be irresponsible. We’re trying to be responsible. And the way you are responsible is by creating a new security arrangement for the Middle East. And even under our plan, we maintain some troops regionally in order to buffer against Iran and continue the process of prosecuting al Qaeda.

The president and the vice president continually take our plan and misstate what it is. It is not a plan for abandonment. It is not a precipitous withdrawal. It is a leveraged effort to get the Iraqis to settle their differences and move forward so our troops can come home.

BLITZER: You had a very, very haunting statement, a comment that you made when you came back from the Vietnam War and testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. You said this. You said, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”

You regarded the Vietnam War as a mistake. Was the war in Iraq a mistake?

KERRY: Yes, it was a mistake. It was a mistake to go. It was a mistake on a number of different judgments that they made. And I’ve said that many times. But the outcome does that have to be the same mistake. If they leverage the kind of security arrangement that I have talked about and others have, and if they secure some level of stability in Iraq through political accommodation.

But they can’t do it without a sufficient level of diplomacy. They can’t do it without pushing the Iraqis to do what they have proven unwilling to do for almost five years now.

BLITZER: If it was a mistake, though, this war four years ago, how do you morally justify sending young men and women into battle and they are going to die, at least some of them, for what you say is now—has been a mistake?

KERRY: I think it was a mistake to make the decision to go to Iraq, Wolf. But now that you are in Iraq, you don’t want to compound that by making matters worse by not implementing a sensible way to strengthen the region as you depart. So, you know, I am not saying—and I’ve said this continually. Every soldier who has decided to serve is a patriot. And they deserve our gratitude for their sense of duty and for the courage with which they’ve served.

And the way to honor the sacrifice that they have made, despite the mistakes of Rumsfeld, Cheney, the president, the mistakes of Paul Bremer, the mistakes of the military themselves, and they’d tell you that.

The way to honor that sacrifice is to get the policy right now. And the way you get it right now is by creating this new security arrangement, having the diplomacy necessary to get the Sunnis and Shias to settle the differences of a civil war. None of us signed up to send our troops to a civil war. Not even the military said they want to plunk their troops down in the middle of a civil war.

In fact, Donald Rumsfeld said if it became a civil war, we shouldn’t be there. So it’s time to face reality. The president isn’t. We are.

It’s time to face reality. You can’t veto the truth

 
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The Fort Worth Star Telegram of Texas noted the 4th anniversary of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” pep rally on the USS Abraham Lincoln with these words:

Through their votes in November, the majority of Americans charged this new Congress with finding an exit strategy. If the president continues to resist compromise and the people’s branch of the government yields instead, a crucial point will have been passed in the balance of power, and the long-term damage to confidence in our institutions could be significant.

The American people, through their elected representatives, have the right to decide when and where wars will be fought and when and where they will cease.

[...]

Although this might be one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in U.S. history, it is not the first. What makes America strong is the ability to learn from mistakes and move beyond them.

But mistakes can’t be fixed until they are recognized as such.

It is past time for the president to face the fact that he over-reached and that the American people want out of Iraq. They said so in November.

Bush must sit down with Congress to work out a compromise. Further confrontation divides the country, discredits government and diminishes our democracy. BY THE NUMBERS

Since May 1, 2003—the date on which President Bush declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq:

3,203 troops have been killed.

13,706 troops have been wounded in action and returned to duty within 72 hours.

10,664 troops have been wounded in action and not returned to duty within 72 hours.

$378.2 billion has been appropriated from fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2007.

19 Countries have withdrawn troops from Iraq.

And then there is Representative Patrick Murphy (D -PA 08) with an eloquence born of pain and intimate knowledge of what our troops face in Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart. This week nine of my fellow paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division were killed in Iraq. Nine more heroes killed. Nine more paratroopers returning home in coffins, draped in the American flag.

Mr. Speaker, I was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and 2004. Nineteen of my fellow paratroopers I served with never made it home from the streets of Baghdad. I carry their names with me every single day to remind myself of the solemn responsibility we face each time the Speaker bangs down her gavel. Nineteen men… nineteen guys who never made it home to their families… nineteen all-Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice… nineteen men who are missed… Nineteen men. Now we have 9 more paratroopers to add to this list.

Mr. Speaker, how many more suicide bombs must kill American soldiers before this president offers a timeline for our troops to come home? How many more military leaders must declare the war will not be won militarily before this president demands that the Iraqis stand up and fight for their country?

What is the mission? When is it accomplished?

As Patrick Murphy asked,

....I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle…will you stand with us next year to offer a timeline on the war’s fifth anniversary? How about a timeline on the sixth? How about a timeline on the tenth? Because that’s what voting no does. It says no to the tough questions. No to accountability. And no to providing our troops on the ground with a clear mission.

UPDATE @ 1:30 PM ET:

On the 4th anniversary of Mission Accomplished the Senate Democrats have posted a new map of America that breaks down the toll of the Iraq War state-by-state. Click on the map to select a state. Here are the stats for Massachusetts:

MASSACHUSETTS

• Number of Active Duty Service-Members in Iraq: 1,656
• Number of Reserve Forces in Iraq: 770
• Number of Service-Members Killed in Iraq: 51
• Number of Service-Members Wounded in Iraq: 408
• Cost of War to the People of Massachusetts: $10.7 billion