JK Stands With Iraq War Vets
JK joined Sen. Murphy Murray, Reed and Whitehouse this morning in speaking out with the VoteVets organization. He noted that US troops have been shortchanged on equipment and cheated by contracting fraud.
WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. John Kerry today joined with veterans of the Iraq war as he called upon the Bush Administration to reconsider the “ill-conceived” escalation of the war in Iraq and demanded that Congressional Republicans agree to a full debate on the president’s planned escalation. Kerry made his comments during an appearance with members of the VoteVets group, which is lobbying members of Congress to stand against the Bush escalation plan. Kerry also said that he will push for a vote for his resolution setting a firm one-year deadline for the withdrawal of most US troops out of Iraq. That plan calls for an immediate diplomatic effort to engage the key players in the region, while simultaneously working with the Iraqi police forces to prepare them for assuming a greater role in the security of their country.
“This war is bad news and we should be looking at ways to bring it to an end, not escalate it by sending another 21,000 troops into Baghdad with no real plan for bringing about peace,” Kerry said today. “The problem in Iraq needs to be sorted out by Iraqis and our soldiers have no business trying to play referee in a nasty civil war between different factions. Nearly four years into this war, many of the men and women of our military are in Iraq without up-armored vehicles, without proper equipment, without sufficient radios or other supplies that they need to protect themselves. That’s simply unacceptable.”
Kerry noted that recent audits have shown that money intended to help stabilize Iraq instead went for – among other things – an Olympic size swimming pool, VIP trailers, vehicles that can’t be accounted for and a training camp for Iraqi police that hasn’t been used in months.
Beachmom has more on the press conference in a diary over at dailykos.
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Really hoping to see video on this at some point today. The Senate debate on whether or not to debate Iraq is getting frustrating and really, really boring.
I’m with you Democrafty, will we see this news conference, I mean this involved Iraqi war veterans. Is this how the MSM shows its support for the troops? The troops should have center stage on this debate, I am really annoyed by the incompetence of the media , have they no shame ?
Beachmom:
Thank you, you have really stepped up while the media has stepped down. Thank you for getting the troops voices out there, and I’m sure all the Senators who stood with them today truly appreciate it.
I am really bummed out, I missed Senator Kerry’s speech on the floor yesterday and cannot not find a video of it anywhere and now nothing on this important news conference. *sigh*
Senator Kerry,
You just keep speaking the truth. I’m so glad that you were with the veterans standing tall and proud as you made your announcement.
We need you fighting.
Though I know you’re busy with your setadeadline.com and your new book, please don’t forget about healthcare.
I highly encourage you to join Rep. Conyers and sponsor a bill like HR 676 in the Senate.
Thank you Senator Kerry for always looking out for our troops. and for caring about developing workable solutions to the challenges in Iraq.
Bush needs to be taken out of office. The pot smoking, drunk driving, business corrupting, speech bumbling idiot has no place in command of the military. He only won his first election on a technicality, and his second based on the use of fear.
The delegates of the first Congress would have had Bush stripped from his powers, with very little process of law.
What sort of country are We to sit by and let this fascist jerk continue to run the country into a state of sickness, both socially and in comparison to other nations? I know it sounds radical, and in some ways irrational, but honestly, something needs to be done, and even if it means driving tanks to the front door of the White House. I’m angered with the pompous attitude the Presidency has, and all the befriending of corporations to build a massive arms inventory that’s not even being used, and possibly not even built at all, leaving just an illusion, where money is actually going right into the pockets of those individuals conspiring this whole mess of politics.
Reagan fought to rid the world of this B.S., Clinton moved toward reconciliation with Vietnam, JFK moved for Civil and Equal Rights.
Our forefathers would have had Bush stripped of his authority in a heartbeat for such atrocities against the constitution they themselves gave their lives for.
A great many people share the high level of anger and frustration at Mr. Bush and his administration’s policies that you feel, Carl.
There seems to be little rational doubt that he and his cronies have violated both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution on an almost-daily basis since he was selected to the presidency by a controversial Supreme Court decision in 2000.
Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, who certainly ought to know about such things if anybody does, has stated unequivocally for the last several years that presidential impeachment under these circumstances is not only a possibility, it’s a civic responsibility.
One could hardly argue with your premise that those who founded this grand experiment in representational democratic government would have taken a very dim view of Mr. Bush and his cronies. (Whether or not Mr. Reagan actually strove to dismantle the system of political pomposity, corporate corruption, and deeply-entrenched cronyism is open to debate, though.)
In many ways, what is happening today is precisely what the founding fathers expected to happen unless the principles of governmental checks and balances they created were allowed to operate as they were intended to. The accumulated experience and evidence of the egregious excesses of the last six years under Bush II certainly underscores that point.
That being said, of course we all agree that suggesting tanks at the White House door might be a bit premature. While it is not entirely impossible that such a thing might happen someday—history recapitulates phylogeny, and I’m sure the tank drivers in Hungary in 1956 were as astonished as anyone else was about the surprising turn events had taken there—one key thing that makes this great experiment so grand is that the will of the people can, and will, and *must* be heard through Constitutional channels without general insurrection.
Mr. Bush’s imperial presidency can’t dodge that legislative and judicial imperative forever, no matter how hard he tries to throw up smoke and mirrors faster than the truth can catch up with him. The truth can catch up with him, and it will. The reason the Constitution sets up our republic of laws the way it does—difficult, arcane and convoluted it sometimes seems to be—is to ensure that no one man, no one administration, no one political party can control our country over time.
The founders weren’t working in a vacuum, they saw the flaws in everything that had been tried so far and they did their best to create something new that would be able to withstand those risks and defeat those who would be kings.
Their grand experiment in democratic republicanism may not be perfect, in fact in many ways it is not; but so far, at least, it has managed to provide a means and a mechanism by which the arrogant excesses of those who would override its protections can and will be taken down by force of law.
So while anger and frustration and disgust with the arrogance of those who hold temporary power in our nation today are understandable—in fact, in the current circumstances they are as honorable as they are inevitable—the fact remains that those emotions have a powerful conduit of expression in the very laws and principles that the current administration so seeks to minimize.
That is what makes the grand experiment of America so different from anything that has gone before—and why we the people have such a rare and special opportunity in these terribly troubled times to take what’s wrong and make it right again. Your speaking out in anger here, Carl, is just one small example of how and why that works. Thank you for caring so much about our nation as a whole. And it’s still up to all the rest of us to do the same.
otter knows.
JCS Chairman General Peter Pace and Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday “said Congress doesn’t endanger troop morale by voting on nonbinding resolutions opposing President Bush’s Iraq reinforcement plan,” the Washington Times reports.
Pace’s statement that the troops “understand how our legislature works and that they understand that there’s going to be this kind of debate” effectively “takes out of play an argument that had been made by Mr. Bush’s spokesman and other top Republicans, who had warned resolutions disagreeing with the troop increase plan would send bad signals.”
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/
Some more news has come out about these vets today:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020702317.html
Quote from Kerry in the article:
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who appeared with four veterans yesterday morning, said he saw parallels between VoteVets.org and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the group of protesters he led during Vietnam. He said he recognized the anger he saw in Soltz. “When you come back from fighting the enemy, you are passionate and feel very strongly about duty,” Kerry said. “Each one of these folks has earned the right to express their thoughts. Their words ought to stand for themselves. That’s exactly how they feel and people ought to listen to them.”
But the whole article is very interesting. Apparently, the vets stormed out of one meeting with a disrespectful Republican (imagine that—a GOPer not showing respect to the troops).
Also, somebody diaried about it on Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/8/54359/46543
fedup: we have gotten our wish!
http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/press/video.html