Phooey on Tough Talk

http://www.antiwar.com/reese/reese2.html


by Charley Reese
November 8, 2003




I would feel better about President George Bush's
tough schoolboy rhetoric if he were in Baghdad,
Fallujah or Tikrit instead of lolling about on his
ranch or at Camp David in between fund-raising trips
and photo ops. He ought to go to Iraq to see what his
policy has wrought.

Dwight Eisenhower went to Korea during that war. Why
shouldn't President Bush go to Iraq? He could even
stop by Ramallah and the Gaza Strip on the way back to
see what his Palestinian-Israeli policy has wrought.

<snip>

In the first place, the Iraqis killing our people are
not trying to scare us. They are resisting occupation.
No doubt they see themselves as patriots, not as
terrorists. Their message is simple: As long as you
occupy our country, we will try to kill you.
Resistance to occupation is always legitimate but
never the result of a democratic vote. Nobody got the
Iraqis together and said, "Those who want to resist
raise your hands, and those who want to collaborate
raise your hands." Probably most just want to keep
their heads down until the matter is settled.

<snip>
Personally, I can't think of a single benefit worth
the price. What we are doing in Iraq has no effect on
al-Qaida, except to help it recruit more terrorists.
It aggravates rather than helps solve the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Whether the Iraqis want
or don't want a Democratic government is entirely
their business and not worth a single American life.....

I think Reese sums up nicely what should be the Democratic Party's position on Iraq and Bushie's bluster. How do people think it would play if Dean or Clark promised that they would go to Iraq personally to assess the situation? Would it look good if they, or any or all of the candidates, made a point of going to the funerals of all the dead coming back to personally give the country and the party's condolences. Especially if they did it while also sticking it to the Bushits for censoring photos of the caskets coming back from Iraq. You wouldn't want to look opportunistic -- but I think it's disgraceful that the Bushits are trying to hide the dead. Bush should be attending the funerals -- does anyone know if any high level official go to the funerals. I saw a bit from one the other day on TV and there appeared be no official presence from this administration. We have to keep pounding away that the lives of our soldiers are not worth all the gold lining the pockets of Bushie's crony capitalists.

has long said how good it would look if the Dem candidates visited the wounded at the very least. Those in current public office could do this as part of their service as Senator/Congressman. I can't see how the GOP could fault them for doing so. I'd like to see the other candidates do the same thing.

It worked for Ike. He stated during his campaign that he would go to Korea and straighten out the mess, a promise he kept though not exactly the way the voters expected.

Clark spoke of a recent victim in his latest speech, and sounded really hurt by what the man had suffered. The audience was moved.

It would be pandering to attempt to meet every casket, attend every funeral, but all the Democratic candidates should at least mention the young men and women who are paying the price for Bush's stupidity, even if Bush himself won't.

ANd Clark should promise to go to Iraq and straighten out the mess. Weren't moslems involved in the racial cleansing in the Balkans? Didn't he get a reputation for saving their lives? That might be a good credential for someone trying to work with other moslems.

I suspect he might have one of those people in mind to run the Iraqi development group he proposed. How much sense would that make, to bring in a moslem to head that group instead of another General Boykin?