Kerry Missing an Opportunity

John Kerry is carrying the flag for all progressives in this election. If he blows it, he blows it for all of us. Dave Lindorff faults Kerry for missing an opportunity to denounce the war.

According to Lindorff, Kerry

. . . should be calling for the president's resignation or impeachment, for authorizing the establishment of a torture center in Saddam Hussein's old house of horrors in the first place - probably one of the dumber things that the Bush administration and its foolish viceroy L. Paul Bremer III did in the course of their one year rule of terror in Iraq.

Kerry has been stumbling over the Iraq War issue now for over a year. Unable to explain his cowardly and stupid vote in favor of an invasion of Iraq back in the fall of 2002, the presumptive Democratic nominee has instead called for yet more troops to be sent there. Unable to call for an end of the war for fear of being called soft on defense, he has been reduced to claiming he could do a better job of fighting it.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff05132004.html

The author conveniently misses Kerry's MANY criticisms of Bush himself this week and completely misstated Kerry's position which while I am not in complete agreement with it is not one of excalation.

and I am not convinced that Kerry is for peace and not for expanding the US empire and securing empire at any cost. He voted for the war in Iraq and to give an idiot, which we all reailzed was an idiot way in over his head, a blank check

We loved Robert Byrd when he stood before congress, and a congress full of empy seats, to say that this war is being engaged in far too fast.


We loved Senator Byrd, did we not?

Have we all forgotten how we loved Senator
Byred?

what did we see happen? Our senate and representatives giving a blank check to an idiot.
They gave it to him--

and now--he has screwed it up big time--and now they can all say they had not a hint that he would do so. Oh--gee--that is too bad, is it not?

Further, they now say they can handle Iraq, and it's occupation, better than he, the bumbler.

I cannot get over this and actually do not know where to go.

I am faced with a Democratic nominee who professes that Bush is and has made a mess with his war, but who actually had voted to give a madman the blank check and now, seeks to take over, retain the spoils of the war this "mess maker" has made, and do a better job of occupation.

Excuse me, but I cannot accept anything or anyone who professes that this invasion is correct and moral.


Anyone with any sense of the dignity of human beings, would not pursue this taking over of a country and eventually the taking over of a country, would not recommend staying there, and making the best of an insane man's imcompetency.


Right--Bush was incompetent. He bombed Bagdhad to bits murdering tens of thousands in his quest for the spoile of the stuff Iraq had that he coveted.

and now, we have a presidential nominee that voted to give the insane man complete control, saying the insane man did not handle it right and that he can occupy the country of Iraq better.

Further, this candidate is ignoring the left flank of those who would get rid of Bush no matter what.


We who used to be "liberal" are now catagorized as being to the far left, -- Chomskyites, according to a comment made today by Al Franken on his
Air American show, and are a factor that is worthy of being ignored.


We are ignored because we tell the truth and heaven forbid, in order to villify that truth we are termed "idiologues" by the right as well as the left and somehow there seems to be some sort of "leprosotic" lesions growing upon us and we need to be shoved out to some island somewhere that is run by monks and who would try to minister to us and cure us from our "liberalism"



sooner or later, I think, we will be listened to, or the
democratic shift to the right, will , at some point shift to the left. May not happen in my lifetime.

Meanwhile, we on the left are left to wonder why we are being ignored, and in some cases, as in the
Franken case today, villified.

I would think we , the progressives, are all on the same side

and I have given up thinking I can.

I don't defend his war vote except to say, the votes were there FOR the war no matter that he authorized the resolution which terms Bush did not even live up to.

I heard Byrd's speech and was impressed. I am also a realist who knows that we were going to war regardless and that we did not control congress..only controlled the senate at the time by a single vote and Cheney was the tie-breaker.

I would simply ask that you watch him more and read him more. His statements yesterday were powerful, and he has been taking Bush to task.

Me personally...I don't agree with everything that comes out of his mouth and I don't agree entirely with taking the "centrist" tack..but I will say this....after reading DU for the last 4 years..I can literally SEE WHY politician curry to the center rather than the left. The left and liberals in general are so divided it's like sticking your hand into a blender...the far right is much easier to deal with.....drag your knuckles and they will follow....the left is another story.

I work in labor policy in my own state and the divisions even between unions and other members of the working class where labor policy are concerned are so deep that even the UNIONS are now saying (like a good Reoub would say) "I got mine."

We're in a very sorry state of decay...I can only take it one piece at a time...for me..the first slice of the pie is to get rid of the crazed deranged maniacs running our nation...then we can at least SANELY discuss POLICY.

That's all.

because it looked like political suicide not to. There is nobody in the country with the qualifications to be president who is the type who is willing to commit political suicide. If they were that bold they'd be gone already. You can look at Nader but he's already done it and gets less that 10% of the vote.

I'm betting on the best pol available...Kerry.