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Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Better, but not good

Finally, John Kerry is attacking Bush on the war in Iraq. This is good; Bush should be attacked, constantly, on one of the great war crimes in history. But Kerry's attack is way too nuanced, even sensitive. He's pointing out the $200 billion cost, but not really explaining why the war would have cost less if he'd been leading it. Something about getting our allies to go along, but they got suckered into that in the first Gulf War, and weren't about to this time, especially since the reasons for war were even flimsier than the one's Poppy used. (I read somewhere that the U.S. actually made a profit on the first Gulf War--not just the corporations, but the actual U.S. treasury--because countries like Japan and Saudi Arabia paid so much of the bill.) No, if Kerry had been president, and had actually talked and listened to allies as he seems to promise, they would have convinced him, correctly, not to go to war at all. This idea that we could have pulled off a second rape of Iraq (or third, counting the sanctions, or fourth or fifth or sixth, if you dig deeper into history, like how Saddam came into power in the first place) on the cheap is reprehensible. It was our idiot president's idea to start this war, and our servile People's Chamber of Deputies, including Senators Kerry and Edwards, who gave him the go-ahead.

Maybe Kerry will finally get around to saying what he needs to say:
  1. Bush lied to us in order to mislead us into war;
  2. Senator Edwards and I were wrong to have trusted Bush and give him the go-ahead for war;
  3. None of the reasons, either those given before the war or since, were close to being enough to justify the brutal invasion which has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, wounded many more, and caused untold suffering to millions. Neither do they justify the loss of American lives, the grievous wounds suffered by thousands of coalition forces, or the huge expense of funds which could have been put to so much better use.
  4. The evidence is clear that the current occupation is causing far more problems than it could ever hope to solve. Yes, the future of Iraq is uncertain if we pull out. But there appears to be no hope for a good future for as long as we stay. Therefore;
  5. When I'm elected, I will withdraw all U.S. forces as quickly as can be done while protecting their safety.