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Please be honest about the statements our Dems make on Iraq.

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madfloridian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-16-05 04:52 PM
Original message
Please be honest about the statements our Dems make on Iraq.
Edited on Sun Jan-16-05 04:58 PM by madfloridian
Stop excusing them when they are wrong. Hold them accountable. We are the opposition party, not the appeasement party.

I deleted an earlier post because I wrongly assumed that most of us understand the majority of the leaders of the party still support the war. We are about to go and kill more people in Iran or Syria, and who knows where else. Since some did not seem to know, I deleted it. There is too much anger. After I deleted it, people were even angrier at me....

I am going to continue to criticize my party for not speaking out on this war. It is their job to be honest with us. It is their job to be the opposition. I would appreciate it if this were not turned a bash Dean thread. He is not responsible for this war, yet every time we speak up against it.....DUers blame him. Or us.

I do not know Rahm Emanuel, and I did not criticize him. Here is what Emanuel said on the war today, and he like the others who have said these things gave Bush implied permission to go on further into Iran or Syria.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6832586/
MR. RUSSERT: Now, knowing that are no weapons of mass destruction, would you still have cast that vote?

REP. EMANUEL: Yes. Well, you could have done--well, as you know, I didn't vote for it. (he said he would have if in congress) I still believe that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do, OK? But how you go about it and how you execute that war is the problems we face today.

MR. RUSSERT: So even knowing there are no weapons of mass destruction, you would still vote to go into Iraq?

REP. EMANUEL: You can make--you could have made a case that Saddam Hussein was a threat, and what you could have done also, Tim, is worked with other countries, go through the U.N., take the time to do it. Again, the problems with our troops and the country today faces in Iraq isn't about whether we should or should not have gone to war, whether we should or should not have removed Saddam Hussein, it's how they have pursued this war, the lack of planning, the lack of processing, thinking about there was no plan, as you know, for after we removed Saddam Hussein, what would you do. There was no plan for--as you know, before war, you had to have an exit strategy. One has not even been annunciated. There's been a presumption that we were going to be greeted as liberators. There was a presumption this would be quick and easy, and then we can turn the country over. None of that has been laid out, and that has to do with the competency and the planning that goes in, and they did not have a plan for the day after "hostilities ended."

SNIP..."REP. EMANUEL: No. In fact, Tim, what I actually believe it's consistent in this perspective. Not the how and why--not the why about whether we should have gone, but how we pursue that war. And the fact is, I don't think the war today has been handled to date. I think the president came, as you know, for resolution to Congress. He got that. Second, he asked multiple times for the resources to fight that war. He has got that. What we ask in return is a plan."

SNIP.."REP. EMANUEL: Well, first of all, I'm not the president, but what I would do is I would not have happy talk. Stop talking about how everything is just going swimmingly. Level with the American people. Level with the Congress. Tell us the truth of what we're going to do, what it's going to take to do that because the American people and the Congress will then support it...."END SNIP

I agree with stopping the happy talk, I do not think we will support it if he tells us the truth. We already know the truth of why we are there. Is he saying he approves? He says "Tell us the truth of what we're going to do..." I want to know what he means.

Disclaimer: I think we need to try to get stability there of some kind before we just pull out. If we don't there will be a Sunni bloodbath, the the women will be going into the dark ages of another taliban.






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ayeshahaqqiqa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-16-05 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. Dean and Kucinich are the only Dems
who spoke out against the war. Frankly, they are the Dems I feel should lead the party, because we need to make strong statements against any more military adventures.
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NVMojo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-16-05 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
2. we need to be watching our Dem leaders closely ....
snip....
The Senate's second-ranking Democrat took issue with Bush's claim that the country has given him a mandate.

"To suggest there is this broad mandate and the Democrats should slink away and reconsider all their values is just plain wrong," Senator Dick Durbin told Fox News Sunday.

"I think we have to carefully try to find common ground with this president. Where we can't find it, we're going to stand our ground," Durbin said.

Republican Senator Rick Santorum said about a dozen of the 44 Senate Democrats are willing to work with the Republican leadership.

"There are a lot of Democrats who look at this last election, last several elections, and they see that this obstructionist agenda that was led by (defeated Senate Democratic leader) Tom Daschle has not been beneficial to them politically and it certainly hasn't been beneficial to the country," Santorum said.

The new Democratic leader, Nevada Senator Harry Reid, said Democrats can work with Bush if the president shows some "humility."

"I think we don't need arrogance here," Reid told US ABC's This Week.

"We need the ability to work together."

more...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Breaking-News/Bush-shuns-US-departure-date-from-Iraq/2005/01/17/1105810798170.html?oneclick=true

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dogman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-16-05 05:04 PM
Response to Original message
3. It's hard to condemn what you supported.
This is the problem, a majority of Dems supported this war. There are a number of different reasons for their support, not many good ones. Dems are inclined to ignore that fact and fight B$$$ on his mishandling the war which is a fact on it's own. This is probably a main reason the war failed to bring B$$$ down. The arguement has now moved beyond the rightness of the war since so many Dems were wrong.
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unblock Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-16-05 05:07 PM
Response to Original message
4. duplicate thread, please continue here:
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