Does Howard Dean Speak For His Party?
WOAI is reporting...
(SAN ANTONIO) -- Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.From RealClearPolitics...
Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.
"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."
Dean says the Democratic position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.
"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway..." [snip]
"What we see today is very much like what was going in Watergate," Dean said. "It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war. The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong. The President withheld some intelligence from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He withheld the report from the CIA that in fact there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), that they did not have a nuclear program. They (the White House) selectively gave intelligence to the United States Senate and the United States Congress and got them to give the go ahead to attack these people."
Dean hit all the highlights: Comparison to Vietnam. Check. Call for immediate withdrawal. Check. Bush lied. Check. Comparison to Watergate. Check.Speaking of the lunatic fringe, let's not forget John Kerry with this gem over the weekend.
In all seriousness, Howard Dean is not some yahoo, he's the national voice of the Democratic party and his comments - saying Iraq is unwinnable and calling for the immediate withdrawal of 80,000 troops less than two weeks before Iraq goes to the polls - unquestionably furthers the perception that Democrats are the party of cut and run. This is a horrendous political mistake and it puts even more pressure on Democrats like Clinton, Biden, et al to respond to the question: Does Howard Dean speak for your party?
Sen. KERRY: Let me–I–first of all, there is so much more that unites Democrats than divides us. And Democrats have much more in common with each other than they do with George Bush’s right now. Now Joe Lieberman, I believe, also voted for the resolution which said the president needs to make more clear what he’s doing and set out benchmarks, and that the policy hasn’t been working. We all believe him when you say, `Stay the course.’ That’s the president’s policy, which hasn’t been changing, which is a policy of failure. I don’t agree with that. But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is you’ve got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment. You’ve got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis. And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the–of–the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not…
Watch the Video HERE.
posted by Pat Campbell @ 11:17 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
It is amazing to me that Howard Dean got further than kindergarden. The man is a certified nut job. He is the best thing that could have happened to the Republican party with all the ills they are suffering at this point.
People seem to forget that, when our troops left Vietnam, the South Vietnamese troops were holding off the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) just fine. It wasn't until the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress voted to stop sending aid to South Vietnam that the South lost; it's impossible to fight, when you run out of bullets for your guns and fuel for your tanks. No doubt the present-day Democrats have every intention of abandoning Iraq in the same way. They seem to have no understanding of cause and effect.
Who cares if South Vietnam was "lost". Would you send your child to die there. Thirty years later Vietnam on its own has virtually become a capitalist country as is China. 60,000 dead for nothing.
Yes, Vietnam and China have both moved toward open-market economies, but they still have oppressive oligarchies in control. Their human-rights records are very poor. Each of them should move toward freely-elected "democracies" to better serve their people, imho.
Therefore let them do it on their own. It does not need to be imposed on them by the US. It took at least 150 years for our democracy to even begin to work, so why should we impose an alien system on others.
It wasn't ever imposed. It was our influence that has got them to where they are. It is the Christian way to help those who need it. It is the coward who turns his back to let him fend for himself.
It was said by the communist that America will fall from within. Maybe they and the rest of the world will fall likewise; into a free world, planted by the freedom that was shown to them by the free people who lived and died for it.
And imagine this. If the free people lose...whose left?
And the freedom in Iraq will be that most people in the middle east prefer to be ruled by theocracies or governments that resemble a theocracy. Iraq will end up, by freedom of choice, a democracy, similar to Iran, by the vote of the Shia majority. Mark my words. All that expense and American lives lost for that.
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