Get U.S. out of Iraq

By Dennis Kucinich

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-05-19-oppose_x.htm

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The U.S. military presence in Iraq is counterproductive. If we stay the course, it will damage America's security and lead to a longer war, more troop losses and civilian casualties, hundreds of billions of tax dollars wasted and, inevitably, a draft.
The U.S. invasion was based on lies: Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 or with al-Qaeda's role in it. Iraq didn't have the intention or capability of attacking America. It did not try to get uranium from Niger. It had no weapons of mass destruction. It was wrong to go in. It is wrong to stay in.

This is the time for a peace plan for Iraq and an exit strategy for the U.S. The world community will not make a commitment absent a change of direction in U.S. policy.

These needed steps can bring our troops home, reconnect the U.S. with the world, re-establish our moral authority and lead Iraq toward stability and self-governance:

The concrete, specific plan. Of course, this plan has been public on his site for a long time now. I'm glad to see it make it into USA Today and to the rest of America.

dammit.

He is a personal hero of mine.

unfortunately far too late to do him any good.

There aren't 150,000 troops in the world who can do this job. It is pure fantasy, even if the UN would agree to take on the entire task alone.

Is Dennis serious about "free elections and adopt a constitution to move toward self-governance"? How serious? Is it critical, even if the UN doesn't help? Is Dennis willing to pull U.S. troops out, even if it means a failed Iraqi state?

Nobody ever asks Ralph and Dennis the tough questions.

Dennis respond to a lot of tough questions. Not those in particular; why not send/suggest them to meet the press? Maybe they'll ask for you. If not, check out his schedule, and go meet him. He's wonderfully open to one-on-one conversations with people, and genuinely responds to the question. I've seen him do this. He'll pause a moment for thought, and then give, not a canned response, but a sincere answer. A refreshing experience!

Is actually a way of marginalizing a candidate, not protecting him. The press took the "common sense" view that anybody who physically looked like Kucinich and ideologically had/articulated his positions could never go anywhere, and therefore never involved him in analyses except as the left wing anchor (they did the same thing to Rev. Al and Moseby-Braun).

I'm sure DK would love to be asked tough questions in a national forum and have his answers addressed in a serious manner. The guy is the heart of sincerity, if nothing else.

The critical questions above were excellent and highly problematic for DK's current Iraq position. It's a Catch-22, since had the DK strategy been followed rigorously from the outset there would be no power vacuum to fill nor US soldiers being killed. But DK does need a coherent strategy for getting out of somebody else's mess, and unfortunately I don't think his philosophy admits of one.

--it will surely be accepted by more moderate types like Sistani. Not that Fallujah has calmed down quit a bit after the US withdrew, which bodes well for withdrawal elsewhere.

He answered questions with the same rhetoric that's on his web site, shook hands with about 5 people, then headed out the door.