Senator Kerry: Five Years After 9/11, They Still Can't Count To Five

[understandinglife]

I'm at home in Boston today speaking about how we actually win the war on terror.

A lot of people have made this issue either overly simple or overly complicated, for their own cynical reasons. (Mislabeling Iraq the central front in the war on terror is both, and the height of cynicism.)

But here's a different way of going at it -- cut and dry -- here are the five biggest things that need to happen to get the war on terror right.

1. Redeploy out of Iraq.

2. Recommit to Afghanistan.

3. Reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

4. Restore our moral authority.

5. Reform Homeland Defense.

<clip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kerry/five-years-after-911-th_b_29042.html

I'd add two more:

Apologize for our crimes against humanity.

Tell the truth, always.


Peace.

[david_vincent]

1. I'd add another one

Remove one of the biggest justifications the Muslim fundamentalists have by completely withdrawing American troops from Saudi Arabia.

[understandinglife]

2. Excellent.

Thank you.


Never Forget: George W. Bush willfully violated National Security to cover-up his willful launch of a war of aggression and illegal occupation of Iraq.

[blm]

3. The American bases in Saudi Arabia were shut down in 2003 - Bush gave

Bin Laden what he wanted.

Bin Laden also wanted Saddam overthrown because Saddam wouldn't allow extreme Islamic fundamentalists to operate politically in Iraq. Bush did his bidding there, too.

[AlamoDemoc]

5. Wrong...our Saudi basis aren't finished yet...we simply moved our

logistical, propaganda, and landing gear operations to Qatar, Doha...just across the street from Jeddah, SA.

[blm]

7. The bases Usama originally wanted closed were closed.

Bush's answer was to pop them up everywhere else in the region.

[AlamoDemoc]

8. wrong again....Taif Air Base is still in operational

U.S. military training mission (USMTM) advisory detachment located in Taif, Saudi Arabia is responsible for providing advisors for key flag officers who oversee regional Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) and Royal Saudi Air Forces (RSAF)....while many of our air and sea middle east projectory is based in Taif, our troop morale support and logistics are under the DoD of Ministry of Defense and Aviation (MODA) from Taif, Saudi Arabia.

[blm]

9. I could have sworn I read articles about the base closings in 2003.

Sure, it was done with no publicity, but were the reports that did come out about the closings not truthful?

[AlamoDemoc]

10. If you want to read about the subject...I would suggest a book called

"The sorrow of Empire", by Mr. Chalmers Johnson @ Metropolitan Books.

[sandnsea]

22. Here

Mark Green got hit with this on Hardball a while back so I looked up the data and sent it to him, actually got a personal response which was kind of cool. So here you be, we are pretty much out of Saudi Arabia, except for a few advisors.

The truth is 4,000 troops were redeployed and Prince Sultan AB closed leaving around 500 troops, primarily advisors, at Eskan Village, Taif and a few other bases.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/saudi-arabia.htm

[blm]

26. So, Bin Laden got the MAIN base closed and MOST troops out of Saudi Arabia

And George Bush is keeping a nominal trace of troops in to protect his OTHER family - House of Saud.

[LunaC]

33. You read correctly

America to withdraw troops from Saudi Arabia
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 30/04/2003)


America began a historic reshaping of its presence in the Middle East yesterday, announcing a halt to active military operations in Saudi Arabia and the removal of almost all of its forces from the kingdom within weeks.

The withdrawal ends a contentious 12-year-old presence in Saudi Arabia and marks the most dramatic in a set of sweeping changes in the deployment of American forces after the war in Iraq.

Withdrawal of "infidel" American forces from Saudi Arabia has been one of the demands of Osama bin Laden, although a senior US military official said that this was "irrelevant".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/30/wsaud30.xml

[AlamoDemoc]

4. nice...K&R

[understandinglife]

6. Kerry: "Bush's Katrina Foriegn Policy"

"The leaders of this administration have shown in recent days that they will say anything, do anything, twist any truth, and endanger our nation's character as one America in a desperate ploy to survive a mid term election," said Kerry.

"But Americans now see through this charade," Kerry continued. "They know the truth."

"We have a Katrina foreign policy -- a succession of blunders and failures that have betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it," said Kerry.

<clip>

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Senator_Kerry_slams_Bushs_Katrina_foreign_0909.html

Peace.

[ninkasi]

17. I like that label

"We have a Katrina foreign policy -- a succession of blunders and failures that have betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it," said Kerry.

It's a very good description of just exactly what our foreign policy has been under the Bush cabal. They can't do anything right, because everything they do is for the wrong reasons.

[bleever]

11. It's becoming clearer every day.

Easier to explain, and easier for everybody to see.

Recommended, with pleasure.


:hi:

[understandinglife]

18. Hey there ...

:hi:

easier and easier .... to see all the lies, all the crimes, all the tragedies, ...., now "We the People ..." just need to fix stuff, soon.


Peace.

[bleever]

20. My friend,

you know as well as any of us that there's a lot to be fixed.

But we won't give up.

:hi:

[elehhhhna]

12. LOOK! His rhetoric's been punched up AND dumbed down:

He usually scores at a post-grad level. Now he hit the perfect numbers. Plug the text in here & see for yourself.

http://resources.aellalei.com/tools/writer/sample.php

WAY TO GO, JK!!!



REC'd!

[jayctravis]

14. I love that he phrased it "homeland defense"

Instead of "homeland security". Let's chuck that out of the vernacular; "defense" specifies protection from outside attack instead of "security" which seems to include those being defended.

[elehhhhna]

23. YES! yes yes yes yes.

As Professor Higgins might have said : I THINK HE'S GOT IT!

[blm]

27. Could be that some of his staff read DU?

In that case, our exchanges on the subject may have been helpful - and, no doubt, appreciated.

[elehhhhna]

29. That's why I post more selectively lately. Lots of recent evidence

that certain media & politicos are coincidentally(?) taking our advice, as well as picking up on stuff from our Greatest page that's otherwise been stuffed down the memory hole. This is also why I've been posting about ANTHRAX a LOT for the past week.


Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the UNSOLVED Anthrax mailings : 9/11/01. First "discovered" & made public: 9/18/01.

[blm]

30. I hear you - it's why I keep pointing out media and voting machines that

are owned and controlled by GOPs. That's the battle I believe the Dem PARTY needs to take on, but it can only succeed if most of the PARTY works together to expose it.

We can't have a few pointing to it while the other Dems mock them as conspiracists who need to get on the centrist bandwagon to win.

Repetitiveness may be boring, but I don't feel I am here to be entertaining and don't care if I am laughed AT. Too much is at stake, and we are at the edge of losing access to our real history.

[glitch]

36. I think you do good work, am in awe of your tirelessness. Not laughing.nt

[Ignis]

34. Ooh, neat tool!

Thanks for the link! :)

[Unbowed]

13. Damn straight!

Five great points. Those are just the plan for security, but he also has talked on truth and this line from his speech in Boston today was fantastic: " Let me say it plainly: No American president should be for torture before he's against it."

And this

"We must start leading by example. We should never engage in or excuse violations of basic human rights. We must uphold the rule of law in our own conduct. And we should never accept official lying by our leaders."

[understandinglife]

19. "We must uphold the rule of law in our own conduct." Yep. Welcome to DU!

Peace.

[bleever]

21. Great statements by Kerry.

His focus seems to be more and more laser-like lately.

Welcome to DU!

[OzarkDem]

15. Keep it up

You guys are getting really good at this.

[garthranzz]

16. Kudos to President Kerry

I would just suggest altering the order, making reduction of dependence on foreign oil #1 and restoring moral authority #2 - though arguably they are one and the same.

[DemReadingDU]

24. there certainly is a lot of moral confusion around these days

Let's stand up for what we believe. It is the only way to win. And it is the only way we will be worthy of winning.




great speech by Kerry!

[Time for change]

25. It's always great to hear from our real President on these issues

Dems need to keep on speaking out like this.
:patriot:

[mod mom]

28. but if we replace our dependency on foreign oil, who will support

those hefty mortgages on oil baron's third homes and yachts?

hi friend! hope all is going well. :hi:

[understandinglife]

31. Hey there ...

.... going very well, indeed. Hope the same for you and yours! :hi:


Peace.

[berni_mccoy]

32. I'd ADD ONE as well: IMPEACH THE CRIMINALS WHO LIED US INTO A WAR

ALL OF THEM: The entire WHIG + BUSH.

I'd also label PNAC as a terrorist organization.

[glitch]

35. Gotta stop using the word "Homeland" what ever happened to "Domestic"

Homeland creeps quite a lot of us out.

[elehhhhna]

37. YES YES YES. Homeland is creepy.

[glitch]

39. When we get the government back we get rid of all their creepy terminology

along with all the creepy bots they've planted in our bureaucracies.
In the mean time, Dems need to not accept their phrasing.

[elehhhhna]

40. And we muct AUDIT AUDIT AUDIT. Our stolen wealth went SOMEWHERE.

[glitch]

41. And then comes the indictments, convictions, imprisonment and PUNITIVE

DAMAGES on top of complete REPARATIONS. :hi:

[elehhhhna]

42. And then, the World Court at The Hague...

I'll be there. I've got family about an hour away by train.

[glitch]

44. Excellent! We'll need your reporting. Cannot wait! nt

[elehhhhna]

45. Hell, airfare to Holland's about 500 - 600 bucks. Start saving.

Meet y'all there!

[glitch]

46. Lol! Wouldn't that be so great, a party of DUers there for the trial? nt

[elehhhhna]

48. Several lovely hotel options here --

Den Hague is only a half-hour form Schipol Int'l Airport (Amsterdam) and close to Leiden, a college town where they have the best "coffeeshops".


http://www.hotels.nl/the-hague/

[karynnj]

38. In Kerry's speech - he specifically includes "tell the truth"

as part of 4.

[ProSense]

43. The five

awesome R's

Bravo! Great speech!

[karynnj]

47. It was a great speech

The entire series of Faneuil Hall speeches have been extraordinary - I've stopped saying best speech ever - because when said 4 or 5 times in a year, it gets silly. He really is incredible.