XPost: alt.fan.barbra.streisand, alt.fan.j-garofalo, alt.fan.julia-roberts   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats   
   From: Z@freeDamn.net   
      
   Chappiquiddick Ted & KKK Byrd do not have enough brain cells remaining to be   
   credible except for dishing out Liberal/Leftist Kool-Aid.   
      
   Z   
      
   "Leland Milton Goldblatt Are All Repug Idiots?"   
    wrote in message   
   news:1106877443.687315.77760@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...   
   SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY DISCUSSES AMERICA'S FUTURE IN IRAQ AT THE   
   JOHNS' HOPKINS SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES   
      
   January 27, 2005   
      
   For Immediate Release   
   CONTACT: Melissa Wagoner   
   (202) 224-2633   
      
   Address Delivered at the Johns' Hopkins School of Advanced   
   International Studies   
      
      
      
   Thank you Dr. Fukuyama for that generous introduction.   
      
      
      
   I'm honored to be here at the School of Advanced International   
   Studies. Many of the most talented individuals in foreign policy have   
   benefited from your outstanding graduate program, and I welcome the   
   opportunity to meet with you on the issue of Iraq.   
      
      
      
   Forty years ago, America was in another war in a distant land.  At that   
   time, in 1965, we had in Vietnam the same number of troops and the same   
   number of casualties as in Iraq today.   
      
      
      
   We thought in those early days in Vietnam that we were winning.  We   
   thought the skill and courage of our troops was enough.  We thought   
   that victory on the battlefield would lead to victory in the war, and   
   peace and democracy for the people of Vietnam.   
      
      
      
   We lost our national purpose in Vietnam.  We abandoned the truth.  We   
   failed our ideals.  The words of our leaders could no longer be   
   trusted.   
      
      
      
   In the name of a misguided cause, we continued the war too long.  We   
   failed to comprehend the events around us.  We did not understand that   
   our very presence was creating new enemies and defeating the very goals   
   we set out to achieve.  We cannot allow that history to repeat itself   
   in Iraq.  //   
      
      
      
   We must learn from our mistakes. We must recognize what a large and   
   growing number of Iraqis now believe.  The war in Iraq has become a war   
   against the American occupation.   
      
      
      
   We have reached the point that a prolonged American military presence   
   in Iraq is no longer productive for either Iraq or the United States.   
   The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not part of   
   the solution.   
      
      
      
   We need a serious course correction, and we need it now.  We must make   
   it for the American soldiers who are paying with their lives. We must   
   make it for the American people who cannot afford to spend our   
   resources and national prestige protracting the war in the wrong way.   
   We must make it for the sake of the Iraqi people who yearn for a   
   country that is not a permanent battlefield and for a future free from   
   permanent occupation.   
      
      
      
   The elections in Iraq this weekend provide an opportunity for a fresh   
   and honest approach.  We need a new plan that sets fair and realistic   
   goals for self-government in Iraq, and works with the Iraqi government   
   on a specific timetable for the honorable homecoming of our forces.   
      
      
      
   The first step is to confront our own mistakes.  Americans are rightly   
   concerned about why our 157,000 soldiers are there  -- when they will   
   come home -- and how our policy could have gone so wrong.   
      
      
      
   No matter how many times the Administration denies it, there is no   
   question they misled the nation and led us into a quagmire in Iraq.   
   President Bush rushed to war on the basis of trumped up intelligence   
   and a reckless argument that Iraq was a critical arena in the global   
   war on terror, that somehow it was more important to start a war with   
   Iraq than to finish the war in Afghanistan and capture Osama bin Laden,   
   and that somehow the danger was so urgent that the U.N. weapons   
   inspectors could not be allowed time to complete their search for   
   weapons of mass destruction.   
      
      
      
   As in Vietnam, truth was the first casualty of this war.  Nearly 1400   
   Americans have died.  More than 10,000 have been wounded, and tens of   
   thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children have been killed.  The   
   weapons of mass destruction weren't there, but today 157,000   
   Americans are.   
      
      
      
   As a result of our actions in Iraq, our respect and credibility around   
   the world have reached all-time lows.  The President bungled the   
   pre-war diplomacy on Iraq and wounded our alliances. The label   
   "coalition of the willing" cannot conceal the fact that American   
   soldiers make up 80% of the troops on the ground in Iraq and more than   
   90% of the casualties.   
      
      
      
   The Administration also failed to prepare for the aftermath of   
   "victory" - and so the post-war period became a new war, with   
   more casualties, astronomical costs, and relentless insurgent attacks.   
      
      
      
   The Administration failed to establish a basic level of law and order   
   after Baghdad fell, and so massive looting occurred.   
      
      
      
   The Administration dissolved the Iraqi army and dismissed its troops,   
   but left their weapons intact and their ammunition dumps unguarded, and   
   they have become arsenals of the insurgency.   
      
   The Administration relied for advice on self-promoting Iraqi exiles who   
   were out of touch with the Iraqi people and resented by them - and   
   the result is an America regarded as occupier, not as liberator.   
      
      
      
   The President recklessly declared "Mission Accomplished" when in   
   truth the mission had barely begun. He and his advisors predicted and   
   even bragged that the war would be a cakewalk, but the expected   
   welcoming garlands of roses became an endless bed of thorns.   
      
      
      
   The Administration told us the financial costs would be paid with Iraqi   
   oil dollars, but it is being paid with billions of American tax   
   dollars.  Another $80 billion bill for the black hole that Iraq has   
   become has just been handed to the American people.   
      
      
      
   The cost is also being paid in shame and stain on America's good name   
   as a beacon of human rights. Nothing is more at odds with our values as   
   Americans than the torture of another human being. Do you think that   
   any Americans tell their children with pride that America tortures   
   prisoners?  Yet, high officials in the Administration in their   
   arrogance strayed so far from our heritage and our belief in   
   fundamental human decency that they approved the use of torture-and   
   they were wrong, deeply wrong, to do    that.   
      
      
      
   The Administration's willful disregard of the Geneva Conventions led   
   to the torture and flagrant abuse of the prisoners at Guantanamo and   
   Abu Ghraib and that degradation has diminished America in the eyes of   
   the whole world.   It has diminished our moral voice on the planet.   
      
      
      
   Never in our history has there been a more powerful, more painful   
   example of the saying that those who do not learn from history are   
   condemned to repeat it.   
      
      
      
   The tide of history rises squarely against military occupation.  We   
   ignore this truth at our peril in Iraq.   
      
      
      
   The nations in the Middle East are independent, except for Iraq, which   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)