Supporting the Troops
They say we must support the war in order to support the troops. I say the best way to support the troops is to oppose a course that squanders their lives, oppose a course that dishonors their sacrifice, and oppose a course that disserves our principles. They say we would dishonor the lives that have been lost by changing course in Iraq.
How immoral and shameful to use lives already given as an excuse to take even more. How immoral to say that more must die because others already have.
When soldiers suffer and die on the altar of an Administration’s stubborn pride, when they lose limbs because of the incompetence and arrogance of mere politicians, then the only patriotic choice is to take back the moral authority abused by those in high office – take it back and throw them out.
-- John Kerry
New Hampshire Jefferson Jackson Dinner
October 13, 2006
26 Comments
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It is interesting how some of our fellow Americans profess their support for our troops; Slap a magnetized yellow ribbon on the SUV, claim to be pro-war and accuse anybody who speaks out against the senseless bloodshed as “hurting our troops’ morale”.
John Kerry gets it. He understands what true support entails; Let us not send our young men and women to die for a mistake. Let us avoid any more lives lost needlessly by finding a workable solution for the Iraq mess. Let us avoid future fiascos by voting those who are responsible for them out of office.
Yes, those words come ringing back because they speak the truth. What a terrible place we’ve been put. Worse is what has happened to the Iraqi people who have suffered so much. Just breaks your heart really.
Great point, and one that definitely merited a re-posting :)
I am struck by the words, “Stubborn pride…” because I’m extremely concerned that Bush is not going to listen to the ISG and pull the troops out. I still hear words about winning and finishing the job… and those words strike me as proof that he’s not really listening to the world.
They’ve exchanged the words, “Move forward” for “Stay the course” but either way…they’re still not moving OUT.
Frankly, I’m not thrilled with the ISG that calls for withdrawal in 08 “to prevent it from becoming political.” Well, move them out in January 07 and then it’s not political. But to wait until 08 is ringing a death sentence on far to many people.
So even the ISG shows stubborness too. But Bush will outstubborn them.
I was at this dinner (with some very dear friends :-) ), and heard Senator Kerry deliver this speech. The passion with which he speaks of supporting the troops is something everyone should have a chance to witness first hand. It’s stirring and it’s unmistakably real, and seems to fill the room.
Senator Kerry understands service and he understands sacrifice. When you hear him speak of supporting the troops, his sincerity is undeniable, as is the underlying anger at the immorality of allowing people to fight and die in a war that should never have been. Immoral is the perfect description for what the administration has done in Iraq. Bush has still not apologized for sending our men and women to war without a plan to win the peace. Hell, he’s still not told us why he sent them in the first place. It’s agonizing for most of us. It has to be worse for someone who’s been there before.
Kerstin, it’s painful, isn’t it, to think that some of those same people with the yellow ribbons on their cars either don’t or won’t understand that supporting the troops begins with good policy? I read today that 71% of Americans don’t agree with the war in Iraq, but I’ll bet almost all of them support the troops. I’m anxious for the remaining 29%, and not sure what motivates them. Misplaced patriotism for some, I’m sure.
Senator Kerry is not the only one who recognizes the corrosive value of “stubborn pride”—today we have this example (quite likely only the first among many) of even the most pro-admin supporters finally breaking ranks and calling a disaster a disaster:
Full article is here: http://www.examiner.com/a-444985~Smith_says_Iraq_war_may_be__criminal_.html
When I worked for the Democratic Party, I loved this person who put ten yellow ribbons on his car as he took us to different sections of the canvassing. Of course his Kerry/Edwards sticker on the bumper was a great bonus, too.
Otter, I’m quite proud of Sen. Smith. I wish he’d have spoken up earlier, but at least he shows a conscience now.
Posted by Otter | December 8, 2006 5:43 PM
Wow, Otter. That’s interesting. He was for the war before he was against it? I’ll bet (and I hope) there’s going to be a lot more who follow his lead and start speaking out in the coming days.
Here’s a question for Sen Smith. What the hell took so long?
Well, good for him, anyway, for finally seeing the light.
Posted by GV | December 8, 2006 7:58 PM
Thank you! I wondered the same thing!
A slogan of sorts? “What the hell took you so long?!”
President Bush can not continue to disregard the risks our troops are taking in Iraq. Our soldiers sign on to protect our country and are willing to give up their lives in doing so, but no leader should abuse the choice these brave soldiers make by continuing on a failed course for the sake of politics or pride.
Senator Kerry says it best. It is immoral. There is a right way and a wrong way to honor the sacrifices our troops make and Kerry has chosen the right way. This is a message that we all need to convey over and over again.
Thanks for posting the Kudlow video clip. I can see the time approaching when the media will start to question how our government thought we could have a war and not pay for it (just a little snark there). Senator Kerry is in the right position to educate and lead Americans as we prepare for our economic reckoning.
I agree with Arthur Laffer’s post-interview analysis that it was a exceptional interview, oncall. Also with Bailey that you can be a good Democrat and still believe in the markets. The Kudlow gang was very positive in the analysis of Sen Kerry’s interview, although I think Larry at one point misrepresented the Senator’s statement regarding the top tax rate. Sen Kerry clearly stated that he would roll back the cut to pay for programs.
For anyone who missed it, you may want to take a few minutes to watch the video. Here’s a summary I posted in DU.
When Larry Kudlow said during the interview today “My favorite Massachusetts Senator was Kennedy.” Sen. Kerry, in typical diplomatic fashion, refrained from retorting that his favorite economic commentator is either Kaletsky or the late Louis Rukeyser. Interesting for a change to hear a discussion with the new Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business about business. Not your typical Hardball or Scarborough questions.
Needless to say, Kudlow didn’t mention the pronoun.
The discussion, as most do these days, began with Iraq. Kudlow started by asking the Senator about the meeting today with Tony Blair. Sen. Kerry said Blair was clear that ‘the potential for disaster is unacceptable’, that we need to transfer responsibility and come to a political resolution, and that he is in favor of looking into discussions with Iran and Syria.
They discussed timetables for withdrawal, how McCain is ‘dead wrong’ in regard to troop levels, and that the real issue is motivation, and that adding more troops won’t do anything to help with that. Sen. Kerry said he disagrees with the ISG in regard to embedding troops and the lack of a firm timeline. Consistent with his previous statements, he stressed that the solution in Iraq is political, and that the fundamental political issues must be resolved.
Kudlow asked what happens if when we leave and Iran moves in how that solves Shi’a/Sunni issues. Sen. Kerry doesn’t believe that will happen and that more importantly, you can’t allow it to get there. The way you avoid that is through diplomacy between the neighbors.
On to domestic economic issues, Kudlow asked about the stock market, and why it’s been good this year, while during the Vietnam era it wasn’t. Sen. Kerry said there are a lot of people happy with the basic economic outlook. The key is to begin moving toward a stronger position in the entire ME. If the new congress is responsible in respect to fiscal issues, he doesn’t see any reason for the market not to get even stronger.
They discussed Sarbanes-Oxley. Sen. Kerry favors easing regulations, particularly for small businesses, but doing it the right way. Compliance, but in a way that relieves some of the strain on small businesses.
The Senator was asked about raising the top tax rate back to 39%. His answer was yes, but not above that. Just retract the cut. He spoke about what the country needs to do with healthcare, infrastructure and IT. Sounds like he wants to both have these things and actually pay for them.
Kudlow asked about free trade, Sen. Kerry says we need ‘sensible’ trade agreements.
In the post interview analysis, Arthur Laffer says he thought the interview was exceptional and agreed with most of what JK said, although he disagreed with him on the top tax rate. No surprise there.
Not much new to us, but a different perspective than most of the shows.
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I see my beautiful coding didn’t work properly. So here’s my link. It shows a map of U.S. Casualties as of November 1, 2006. Check the deaths in your state.
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g314/InvisibleParadigm/US_City-2.jpg
While I’m on a roll, has anyone seen the comments from Republican Sen. Smith (OR)?
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Smith_says_criminal_comment_on_Iraq_1208.html
Now he’s claiming his words were misunderstood. He claims the war is criminal on one hand but not ‘illegal.’
In my book it’s both.
Though he also said what John Kerry said many years ago, “had he known the President would lie and cherry-pick facts he would have voted against the IWR”, Sen. Smith is still not recognising that the cherry-picked war is a flagrant violation of International Laws. It’s illegal in that respect.
So instead of just saying, “It’s criminal but not illegal,” it’s time for Sen. Smith to join the Democrats in performing complete investigations from everything from the top down: initial war plans, profiteering, missing funds, number of dead and wounded, etc… To this day, the military under Bush’s order has fudged the numbers so much that nobody has a true idea of how many people are dead or wounded from his disgusting illegal war.
“UAW membership dips below 500,000.”
Is this something to brag about?
Though the article claims the reason is buyouts and early retirements, that’s not the complete truth. What is the complete truth includes the fact that our government is allowing the bleeding of our jobs to slave labor overseas!
The unions represent us. They represent people. And they’re there to protect us from greedy corporations and their CEO’s who couldn’t give a whoot about their employees. The majority of Americans support labor unions.
I know Sen. Kerry has always been a strong supporter of Unions.
I hope Sen. Kerry in his official capacity as Small Business Chair can help all these unemployed, talented labor members find new jobs or create bustling businesses of their own.
We must continue to fight for fair labor practices. And unions are vital in maintaining these fights. This is why Republicans have allowed the corporations to go overseas unpunished. (And even I remember in 04 the plans to change the tax code to punish those corps and to keep jobs here!)
Anybody else agree with me on this?
I remember it too, Susan. Here are the basic points taken from Kerry/Edwards “Our Plan for America”.
1. Close the foreign tax deferral loophole that encourages companies to send jobs overseas.
2. Cut tax rates for 99 percent of taxpaying U.S. businesses by using the savings from ending deferral and offshore tax havens to cut corporate tax rates by 5%
3. Jump start job creation with a New Jobs Tax Credit that will give manufacturers, other business affected by outsourcing, and small businesses a break on federal payroll taxes for every new job created in America
4. Eliminate capital gains for start-up investments in small businesses.
There’s much more, but those are the points that deal specifically with the tax incentives for keeping jobs here at home.
This is a pro jobs and pro business plan that rewards employers IF they do what’s best for the US economy and the American people.
How can anyone argue with that logic?
Posted by Catherine | December 9, 2006 10:44 AM
Catherine,
They never even came to a debate about it. In 2004, people weren’t hurting enough to actually put aside prejudices and 30 second soundbites and really discuss what could get the economy moving again.
Now, we’re stuck with “more jobs” as the Bush admins claims, except they’re all lower wages and temp jobs.
America really needs our help. I hope others will join JK in demanding real jobs and real health care for Americans again.
I just saw this link at FDL. It’s basically about Hillary Clinton’s comments about violence and video games.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/749/749807p1.html
What strikes me about this is the sense that Hillary is not addressing the more difficult issue of Iraq.
I’m not here to bash Hillary by any stretch of the imagination. But there’s this knot in the pit of my stomach. It has to do with the fact that the war has made our world so much more unsafe. It’s the fact that the music and the video games and movies are issues that make a difference but they’re not as important of issues as the Iraq War and diplomacy around the globe.
We can not just label a box and expect world peace as a result. But we can work diplomacy around the world and cut back on violence across the globe.
Why is Hillary talking about his now?
Actually, here’s the FDL link too.
http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/08/echoes-of-diallo/#more-5976
It discussed Rudy Guliani too. These are issues that are clearly more memorable to New Yorkers. (I don’t remember them at all.) But I remember Rudy from 2001 and of course his convention speech to the RNC.
Something is wrong here with both of these things. That feeling in my gut just won’t go away.
I hope the media stops its games so that we can truly understand all the candidates better and with real facts not spin and hysteria. Otherwise, we’ll be shown Hillary’s facade, and Rudy’s 2001 make-over facade, and McCain’s facade, and we’ll continue to see them lie about the read deal here: John Kerry.
Why is it that the media is content to show spin and facades for all the other players but the person (people) who really have strong skills to lead are just smeared.
No wonder the feeling in my gut won’t dissipate.
It is imperative that we support our troops by putting pressure on this administration to change course and move away from the current failed policy in Iraq. I welcome Sen. Smith’s speech. It is a step in the right direction. He has stepped up to the plate in a very big way and hopefully more republican senators and representatives will also step forward and recognize that the current course in Iraq is a failing one.
I’m sure it must not have been an easy decision to stand up against his party. It was the morally right thing to do. His candidness is refreshing and welcome.
ISG Report is a good step towards making sure that we do the right thing in Iraq and get our troops out at the right time. It would have been preferable if a deadline had been set, but still the report is strong in its recommendations and its observations of the current policy this administration is pursuing.
Posted by Probus | December 9, 2006 6:07 PM
Probus, I’m willing to give Sen Smith the benefit of the doubt. The way I see it, either he looked at the past election and his own upcoming race and thought he’d better consider the will of the 71%, or he had an epiphany.
Either way, I agree that it was a brave move considering most of the Republican members of Congress still haven’t found the nerve.
I’m hoping that more come forward in the next days to do the same.
Posted by GV | December 9, 2006 6:18 PM
GV,
I agree there is probably some political calculation here. He is from a blue state like OR. A majority of Americans are against this war and want our troops out. Maybe it was politically expedient for him to make this move as he is up for reelection in 2008. His party lost control of Congress due to the failed Iraq policy in this war. Perhaps this loss played a part in his decision to come out against this war.
Only time will tell if this was a good gamble on his part. I am glad he is doing it regardless of his motivation. It’s the right move for our country and for our troops. I would hope that more repub politicians would come forward and join dems like Sen. Kerry in demanding a new strategy for Iraq. It is time for neo-cons like Limbaugh and O’Reilly to admit that this war can no longer be won.
When people start musing about JK’s motivation for comments and speeches, I often get a little (more than) peeved. I listened to Senator Smith’s floor statement and heard someone who talked candidly and with emotion about his choices, his values and how he had come to realize the choices were wrong. I found his comments to be intelligent and highly worthy of the Senate floor - something few Republicans have done in decades.
The Churchill quotes were very illuminating and he applied them well. Overall, it was an excellent speech - even if I don’t agree with everything, or wish he could have realized it earlier, the fact is he came forward with the resolution of a conflict within and made some astute contributions to the discussion.
Whatever his past, or even if he realized he needed to change his position to better reflect and represent his constituency, I hope he has learned from this and will pursue more open minded, less ideologic consideration of the solutions that are developed to deal with our problems. And that other Republicans see him as a good example to follow. With ideas like his, we can find some common ground to build consensus on. Let’s go forward.
Probus, you make some very excellent observations. Your take on this particular situation is very much on target. I totally agree with you.
GV, I completely agree with you also that it was a brave move. Very true. Yes, it is politically motivated for sure.