I am not familiar with the author or the NH paper, but the guy says he talked to the campaign itself. I am careful not to post critical stuff of Kerry, as this is a crucial time in history. This guy sounds like I feel right now, very conflicted with no choices.
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=39193Another View:
Kerry’s campaign has shut out the anti-war movement
By ROBERT KOEHLER
Guest Commentary
SNIP.."THE ELECTION ceased to be just a vaguely troubling reality TV show for me one day two weeks ago, when a Kerry fund-raiser hung up on me. Suddenly, ouch. I was left with a dead receiver and a feeling of disconnect I could no longer ignore.
Is the war really off the table in this year’s Presidential race? Is the nation’s central agony and 50-50 schism a non-issue between the major contenders? Has that venerable verbal team of “participatory” and “democracy” been unyoked, and if so, what are we left with? Spectator democracy?"
SNIP...
"The position articulated for me by Kerry media spokesman Bill Burton was Wolfowitz-lite. It wasn’t just that the candidate’s single departure from administration strategy was to put Iraqis under a NATO/U.N. boot heel rather than a strictly American one; it’s that the vision he expounded was unmitigated by the least doubt that bombing is to democracy what April showers are to May flowers...." SNIP.."Exactly what, I asked Burton, is our mission in Iraq? Astonishingly, he refused to evince the least skepticism that ongoing U.S. presence in Iraq — despite Abu Ghraib, 11,000 civilian dead, a wrecked infrastructure, widespread depleted uranium contamination and a united Shiite-Sunni opposition — is anything but beneficial...."END SNIP
I know that staying has been Dean's position as well, and I am beginning to be very torn by this. I do not see how we can stay now. I have always thought we should fix what we broke, but now I don't think we can. I just feel sad about what we have done. I want someone to be upset and yell and get mad. But only Gore is.
"Since the time of Thomas Paine and John Adams, our founders implored that we were not to be the new Rome. We are not to conquer and suppress other nations to submit to our will. We were to inspire them."Howard Dean, 2003
Howard Dean, do you still believe this? Are you afraid to speak out because of Kerry? Even Gore thinks we need to stay, but how can we?