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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (17162)	11/22/2003 5:01:27 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793739

You are a back seat driver, CS. You are espousing the Democrats three point program. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Nothing they can do will make you happy. Sounds like you ought to get out and work for Kucinich. Kucinich Denounces U.S. Tactics in Afghanistan By Edward Walsh Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 20, 2003; Page A04 Democratic presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich said yesterday that U.S. military action against Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was not justified and has proved to be a "disaster" and a "nightmare." Kucinich, a four-term House member from Cleveland and a former mayor of that city, made the assertion in an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Post. But two hours later, he called a reporter to clarify his remarks. He said that he had voted for the congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to take military action in response to the attacks. "On the philosophical question as to whether it was justified, the answer is yes," Kucinich said. "The record on that is clear. . . . I misspoke." Kucinich said his disagreement with Bush was over "tactics" and he believes that Bush should have involved "the intelligence agencies of other countries" and the United Nations in the hunt for the terrorist suspects. Asked whether he still considered the outcome of U.S. military action in Afghanistan to be a disaster and a nightmare, he said: "I see the Taliban regaining strength and all these conflicts with warlords. The question is: What have we won? Where's the victory?" In the interview, Kucinich delivered a scathing indictment of Bush's foreign policy, particularly the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and was critical of U.S. trade and economic policies around the world. Asked in what ways today the United States is a positive force in the world, Kucinich paused for 15 seconds before answering. "I think the mythic dimensions of America that speak to freedom and an open society and a kind of optimism are part of an ever-present awareness that occurs around the world," he said. "There's a lot of pain associated with the world seeing America being disconnected from its policies." Throughout the interview, Kucinich returned repeatedly to the importance of "international cooperation" in resolving conflicts. "International cooperation is the key to the future in terms of peace," he said. "We need international cooperation to defeat terrorism, and we don't have it now." Kucinich opposed U.S. military action in the Balkans during the Clinton administration and the Iraq war. Yesterday he also expressed reservations about the justification for the war that President George H.W. Bush launched in 1991 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. He said he wanted to know whether the United States was a "precipitating factor" in the Iraqi invasion of its neighbor. On Afghanistan, Kucinich said the bombing of that country after the terrorist attacks on U.S. targets was "counterproductive." "We needed to take advantage of the moment and go to the world community and say, 'Work with us collectively to track down these terrorists.' Now, if a state resists, then that's up to the community of nations. . . . When a nation or a government refuses, and the people who are directly responsible for an attack on this nation, then we have an obligation to go through the United Nations to work at providing an effective response," he said. "The government of Afghanistan itself didn't attack us. That's the thinking. That is a major point here in terms of the community of nations." Kucinich is widely regarded as unlikely to win the Democratic presidential nomination, but he argued yesterday that he may be the only Democrat in the nine-candidate field who could defeat Bush "because I have the ability to attract to the Democratic Party people who otherwise wouldn't vote." He cited younger voters, blue-collar workers, and members of the Green and Reform parties. Kucinich said he did not expect any of the candidates to drop out of the race and expected the nomination to be decided at the Democratic National Convention in Boston next July. "I don't see anyone getting 50 percent of the delegates going into the convention, and I feel I have as much chance as anyone else," he said. Asked about former Vermont governor Howard Dean, whose opposition to the war in Iraq has helped to propel him to an apparent lead in the crowded Democratic field, Kucinich said his differences with Dean centered on the continued occupation of Iraq. He quoted Dean as saying recently that he would keep at least 75,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and added, "If I'm successful in this, I won't keep a single troop in Iraq." "I say we can't get out fast enough, but it has to be a stabilizing transition with the help of the U.N.," Kucinich said. washingtonpost.com