I know most of you are Kerry-loving, "anybody but Bush" types, so I figure this question should be asked to those of you who plan on voting for Kerry, instead of protesting the sham that is a Skull & Bones election by voting for a third-party candidate, or not voting at all. So my question is, how do you think John Kerry will get us out of this quagmire which is Iraq? Will re-establishing our relations with the UN, having them join in the war, really help to quell the resistance in Iraq when it is so strong? I mean, Iraq is more dangerous now than it has ever been. The only way to be "successful" in Iraq would probably result in the loss of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives. What else can they do, hope the Iraqis suddenly start to become complacent to the imperialistic forces which are the coalition troops who have invaded their turf? It's not going to happen. The only thing we can do to save ourselves is to pull out of Iraq altogether. I don't believe that anything can be done, except to perhaps contain the violence by guarding Iraq's borders so the insurgency doesn't spread into the neighboring countries. But instead of talking about bringing our troops home, John Kerry wants to send more US troops to Iraq to potentially be killed, making him every bit as big of a war-monger as George W. Bush. So my question to you is, with the mess we are in over in Iraq at the moment, what will John Kerry do to bring about a positive change and an end to the violence? So far he has said very little about his plans for Iraq, and I think this is a very important issue that needs to be discussed rather than avoided. Since you guys know John Kerry so well, and you all apparantly know what a great man he is, maybe you could fill me in here.
What can we do? It is all bad, it is all a trap. Bush has already started the fire in the Middle East, and the only solution is a President who can be human. Great post by the way.
read his book I posted it on here, under Kerrys plan..it should answer all of your questions. It's a dl pdf file.
Maybe with Kerry in the white house the world will be more forgiving. Maybe it will be easier to get the world to help with the rebuilding and security within iraq. I believe with Bush's seer arogance has turn most of the world off.
I say we bring all our troops home, guard our land, borders and our air ways. Iraq is'nt the only place there are terrorist. They are all over the world. Let each country gaurd themselves. It seems like the united states has to do everything pretty much by themselves and they are to busy sticking there nose up everybody elses ass creating more anger in the process.
There are places in the world that need the west's help. You should join some commune or amish community and shut yourself off from the outside world. I live in Canada and i'm very happy with our peace keeping efforts all over the world. We are not war mongers and do not have to capability to be. But i believe we have an obligation to help people in need all over the world. I don't believe in the use of war as the first resort. And we have no troops in iraq. But i believe the nations that prosper should reach out to the nations that are in need.
I'm with you brothersun, it's our responsibility to help the ones living under tyranny. Anyone who thinks we should shut ourselves off from the world isn't much different than Chamberlain was (I might as well use a reference that was in the article). All the mistakes were made in the past, the intelligence errors and "information malfuctions" that everyone just brushes aside is what is really killing the soldiers. If we knew Saddam didn't have the WMDs beforehand, we could have called his bluff and bought more time to find other ways ro remove him. Pulling out of Iraq now though, would only cause problems for us down the road. It would fall into anarchy, and I wouldn't be suprised if neighboring countries dedcided to help themselves to a slice of Iraq if there was nobody defending it. Iran has about a million men on their border already so mobilizing wouldn't be an issue for them. Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia are also definitely capable of military operations to annex pieces of Iraq if the situation presented itself. It would create more unrest in an already turbulent area. Plus, the anarchy and bad taste left behind by America in the mouths of Iraqis would be a magnet for terrorist recruitment centers and Osama strongholds.
I addressed this issue in another thread. John Kerry has been pissing me off with his campaign. Up until the convention...all he yakked about was.."how unlike Bush he is". well...that's dandy but voters dont give a flying whale shit "how unlike someone" you are. we care about the issues...a candidates stances on issues..their solutions to problems. Until now, I have heard little of any of that from Kerry's end. as for the war issue....Bush has bombarded us with this crap for 4 years...all the voters can talk about is Iraq. and for me? Fuck Iraq. I care more about fixing our own problems right now. There's more to being president then the Iraq situation and terrorism. We can pull out completely of Iraq..I dont care..let them alone. here's an otterly list of American issues that are being ignored for the sake of this "war". 1.healthcare/HMO-control/doctors leaving states due to obscenely high insurance rates. 2.Education...our schools suck...our kids are getting dumber by the year. we have a record high of illiteracy. 3.our elderly, in 5 years, we will have more old people in the US and worldwide, then ever documented. How are we going to take care of them if all our money is being spent on war? 4.the environment....it's getting dirtier and uglier..and animals are disappearing at alarming rates.Our water sources(that we need to live!!!)are filled with toxic chemicals and gargantuan amounts of feces and waste. 5.Bringing american jobs back to america. Boosting our economy and not contributing to sweatshop labor in 3rd worlds. What are Kerry's solutions??? I hope he will shut up about Bush and let me know before November. I want to vote for Kucinich...I love Kucinich...I wanted Dean in there as well..atleast they talk about everything besides war and Bush. But I dont think I could consciously vote for Kucinich, knowing that my vote could be a deciding factor in favor of Bush. It sucks..but that is how the cookie crumbles...Kucinich should run again in 2008..I would vote for him then. It's not that I dont care about the war or terrorism. I'm just angry that the average american citizen is being exploited and then discarded for this war. I'm angry that in 4 years, Bush hasn't done shit domestically and has the gall to think he will be re-elected. I'm angry that the only issue people deem important is the war. I'm angry that the war is recieving so much money meanwhile, our country's elderly have to decide between heart medicine and food. I'm angry that my only real choices as a voter for 2004 are "Dumb and Dumberer" call me cynical but that's how I feel.
I don't think it is our responsibility to help other countries, especially when we have enough problems in this country that aren't getting any better. We can (and should) provide aid to countries who want our help, but without military action. But it should not be our responsibility to rid other countries of opressive dictators when these countires have always lived under the rule of a dictator, especially if they pose no real harm to the rest of the world. Just becase Americans favor democracy, doesn't mean everyone else does. Millions of people in this country are without health insurance, so the least of my concerns is securing Iraq when the US is fighting a losing battle against not a country, but an entire religion.
Can't argue with that. I pray that if Kerry is elected, he comes to the same conclusion about this war that he did about Vietnam - that it is wrong and the US needs to withdraw. Unfortunately, he was young then and had not experienced the years of corruption he has since, so I highly doubt he'll make the necessary effort to reverse the mistake of bush and rummy. The public initiative by the US should come now in the ways of $$. Take an honest assessment of what needs to be done in Iraq, determine how much their economy can support of it and come up with a plan to help finance the rest. All security and rebuilding efforts from there should be directed by the Iraqi people and private companies. If people see $$ signs and want to take a job with a private contractor at the risk of losing their life to islamic fundmentalists hellbent on keeping the 'infidels' out of the middle east, then that's their perogative. Outside of embessy workers and perhaps small border controlling military units - the US should pull out.
That's logical. I would like to add..that the smarter solution to this mess would be to buy Iraqi oil instead of Saudi oil(or wherever else we buy it) the profits made by the oil sales could be used by Iraqis to build their country as they see fit. This would give them confidence and a stable export. this system has worked for thousands of years...you have land, land requires money to sustain, you have a family on that land, you need money for them..you have a product you can sell...you sell said product..you get money to sustain your family and land. It's such a simple concept. But the Bush administration's inability to cooperate or even mention such a simple solution just shows that..the real interest is not Iraq's freedom and livelihood but to have an american oil company in control of Iraqi oil and to have an american company reap the profits of Iraqi oil. Not the Iraqis themselves. Hopefully, Kerry will wake up..pull our troops out, give Iraq their country back, pay them money for their resource, and fix our friggin domestic issues.
