From Liberal Values--see original post for links:
Earlier in the day I had one post on Michael Moore after some Iraqi insurgents quoted Michael Moore. I was primarily defending against the anticipated right wing attacks on Michael Moore and Freedom of speech. That post is at:
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=82I checked his web site to see if he commented, and found a snarky post on Kerry. I responded here (with lots of links to Kerry's anti-war statements):
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=88Michael Moore Has Freedom of Speech, Even When He Is Wrong (Like Today)
I defend Michael Moore’s right to free speech, but that does not mean I necessarily agree with him. Michael Moore is often wrong, just as today when he headlines a story in John Kerry’s support for anti-war candidates with, “John Kerry Puts His Money Where His Mouth Should Have Been All Along.”
John Kerry is putting his money where his mouth has been all along. Did Michael Moore never hear the phrase “Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time” during the campaign?
Kerry’s opposition to George Bush’s foreign policiy did not begin during the Presidential campaign. Following his early opposition to Richard Nixon on Vietnam and Ronald Reagan on Iran Contra, John Kerry was one of the first to stand up to George Bush, even when other Democrats were afraid to following 9/11. In July 2002 the New York Times wrote, in an article entitled By Attacking Bush, Kerry Sets Himself Apart:
"Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was cruising through a Senate hearing on arms control, charming his Democratic adversaries and deftly parrying their questions, when Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, took the microphone.
"In the aggressive style he honed as a prosecutor two decades ago, Mr. Kerry unleashed a barrage of criticism against President Bush’s nuclear arms treaty with Russia, saying it “neutered” previous pacts and included a “huge contradiction.” Twice, he interrupted a clearly irritated Mr. Powell in midsentence.
"For many Democrats, the war on terrorism has made that kind of frontal assault on Bush foreign policy seem risky, if not politically suicidal. But not for Mr. Kerry. A decorated Vietnam veteran and potential presidential candidate, he has lustily attacked the administration on policies like trans-Atlantic relations, Pentagon spending, Middle East negotiations and even Mr. Bush’s greatest triumph, Afghanistan."
John Kerry opposed George Bush’s policies in Iraq from the beginning. At the time of the IWR vote, Kerry spoke out against going to war unless we were proven to be threatened to WMD in his Senate floor statement. He explained his views in articles in Foreign Affairs and the New York Times, writing, “If we are to put American lives at risk in a foreign war, President Bush must be able to say to this nation that we had no choice, that this was the only way we could eliminate a threat we could not afford to tolerate.”
In January 2003 John Kerry spoke at Georgetown, urging George Bush not to “rush to war.” At the onset of the war, Kerry protested by arguing, “What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States.”
In December 2003 Kerry spoke before the Council on Foreign Relations and accused the Bush administration of pursuing “the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in modern history.”
John Kerry was among the first Democrats to stand up to George Bush on the war, and is now one of the leading opponents of the war. Karl Rove knew that John Kerry was a threat as he spread the lies that Kerry supported George Bush’s policies. It is a shame that so many opponents of the far fell for this.
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