Kucinich: Bush setting stage for wide war

[bananas]

http://kucinich.us/node/1839

Kucinich: Bush setting stage for wide war
Submitted by AndyJ on January 10, 2007 - 23:24. Articles

Kucinich: Bush setting stage for wide war
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C – Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement tonight in response to President Bush's nationally televised address to the American people.

"President Bush appears to be setting the stage for a wider war in the region. He has blamed Iran for attacks on America. The President is vowing to disrupt Iran. He is going to add an aircraft carrier to the shores off the coast of Iran. He has promised to give Patriot missiles to 'our friends and allies.' Isn't one war enough for this President? It is time the media and the Congress began to pay attention to this President when he talks aggressively about Iran and Syria.

"It is imperative that Congress step up to its constitutional responsibility to restrain this abuse of executive authority by notifying the President that we will no longer agree to fund the war in Iraq. The supplemental budget request of up to $100 billion would enable the president not only to continue the war against Iraq through the end of his term. It would give him the resources to attack Iran, in the name of defending Iraq and the region."

"In Iraq, his new plan is a plan for more door-to-door fighting, more civil war, more civilian casualties, more troop deaths, more wasted money, more destabilization in the region and more separation from the world community. The President wants to send more troops to Baghdad, where they will work to quell a civil war. Only a small portion - less than 20 percent - of the new effort will be spent in al Anbar, to fight al-Qaeda. Does anyone in this Administration have any sense left at all? They are sending more US troops into the middle of a civil war!

"Congress needs to take a stand against the President and take the necessary steps to bring our troops home. We need to begin talks with Iran and Syria -- and not blame them for our misguided war in Iraq. Diplomacy is the only way to avoid a widening war. If we follow the President's path of war, we will get . . . more war."

On Monday, Kucinich announced a 12-point plan (www.kucinich.us) to withdraw troops from Iraq, establish an international security and peacekeeping force under the auspices of the United Nations, and take steps to begin the political reconciliation process, shore up Iraq’s economy, re-start reconstruction efforts, and institute reparations for Iraqis.

# # #

[rodeodance]

1. I want to hear LOTS of noice from ALL the Dems!!

[maryallen]

22. Bush should be impeached.

[dpbrown]

28. Bush should be in prison

For crimes against humanity.

[0007]

46. junior should be dealt with like Saddam Hessian......

[cyclezealot]

29. Jan 27 need be one noisy rally

Invade Congress' marbled halls and demand Bush be either reined in or impeached. Bush wants a wider involvment. Maybe even the media such as the New York Times/ Los Angeles Times might consider impeachment.

[Imagevision]

58. As badly as Bush wants to control the middle east oil flow, by the same token

the people of the middle east quite obviously are sacrificing their lives to keep the US. from grabbing their oil and to discourage Bush from being occupiers with no intentions to leave. The only one leaving is Bush in Jan. of 2009 dumping his fiasco on Edwards,Obama, Hillary or who the hell ever, the beat will go on and Bush will go out grinning because he will have accomplished what the neocons have set out to what they planned since they stole the elections...

[donheld]

2. Anyone doubts it is a fool

:grr:

[mmonk]

10. And any for the widening, evil.

[ixion]

3. kicked and recommended

for the truth! :patriot:

no more illegal invasions! no more wars of aggression!

[formercia]

4. It's about Iranian oil

Coincidentally, much of the Iranian oil fields are contiguous with those of Iraq.

I think the goal is to provoke a conflict with Iran, then take over the Iranian oil fields near the Iraq border under the pretense of creating a buffer zone to prevent 'further attacks' by Iran against Iraqi territory.

Bush Gang knows we can't conquer Iran and occupy the country, they just want control of the oil or a major portion so that Iran will not have the production capacity to export, thus limiting their revenue.

The long term goal is control of the Caspian Basin.

[focusfan]

27. i agree with you 100%

we need to use our heads and get the s.o.b impeached or
something.

[Maeve]

5. He's right--we invaded the Iranian consulate in Iraq

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2683767&mesg_id=2683767

Can't talk to them, but we can escalate the damned war and try to start another one :grr:

[JoFerret]

6. Steve Bell

[saigon68]

7. Then there is this ONE

[Earth_First]

8. Absolutely! I felt that last night was a 'preparation speech' for a much wider involvement...

Another 22,000 troops, (Iran) another carrier battle group to the Gulf (Iran) Iraqi elections (Iran)...

[DixieBlue]

16. Yeah, I thought that too ...

It felt like much more than a simple "here's my new strategy" speech.

I just hope that the American people wake up and that the new Congress does more to try to stop this little meglomaniac. When I heard about the Iranian consulate raid this morning it skeeved me out. This just seems so totally insane and surreal.

[LynnTheDem]

9. "Does anyone in this Administration have any sense left at all?"

No.

And they never had any to begin with.

[missTheBigDog]

11. You go Dennis

Finally, somebody with the sense and guts to realize what is going on here.

I sure do miss Bill every day.

[Vinca]

12. Kucinich is exactly right. nt

[demnan]

13. Kucinich is absolutely right

I thank him for a being a serious and thoughtful voice against this war for 5 years now.

[Eurobabe]

14. Kucinich calls it as he sees it, and he's been seein' this for 4 years now. n/t

[Zorra]

15. "Congress needs to take a stand against the President "

Yes, Congress, and everyone in the US, needs to take a stand against Commander Cuckoobananas.

He's crazy.

[leftchick]

17. Yahoo link to rate up...

US legislator fears Bush preparing to attack Iran

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070111/pl_afp/usiraqbushiran_070111143330

Bush "appears to be setting the stage for a wider war in the region," Kucinich said in a statement issued after the president's late Wednesday speech on Iraq policy.

"He has blamed Iran for attacks on America. The president is vowing to disrupt Iran. He is going to add an aircraft carrier to the shores off the coast of Iran. He has promised to give Patriot missiles to 'our friends and allies.' Isn't one war enough for this president?" he asked.

"Does anyone in this Administration have any sense left at all? They are sending more US troops into the middle of a civil war!" he wrote.

Considered on the left flank of his party, the avowed pacifist wants Congress to cut off funding for the war.

The United States needs "to begin talks with Iran and Syria -- and not blame them for our misguided war in Iraq. Diplomacy is the only way to avoid a widening war. If we follow the President's path of war, we will get ... more war," he wrote.

[donkeyotay]

18. We can't talk to Iran, but we can arrest their diplomatic personel

and send special ops across the border. We can finance their Chalabi's and foment unrest internally. We can accuse them of ruining our war.

If we're enjoying trying to define victory in Iraq or having an exit strategy there, defining the same in Iran would look like what?

[Megahurtz]

19. Go Kucinich!!!

:applause: AND YELL LOUDER!

This madness has to be stopped before it gets any worse!

NO MORE WAR!!!

BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME!!!

[lovuian]

20. Dennis Knows Bush wants WWIII and Congress has to DO

Something to stop this maniac

[superconnected]

23. Exactly, and they will have to impeach and try him for war crimes

it's the only way to stop him.

They clearly don't want to but the war-fires are too hot around him for them not to have to address it and stop him.

They also can't ignore the damage he routinely inflicts to the constitution.

I bet they don't realize it yet, that it does come down to impeaching.

[mzmolly]

21. Absolutely correct. One last PNAC hail mary is what we're witnessing.

* is nuts and the world is at his mercy.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews became alarmed at Bush's threats

and they spoke at length as to the serious consequences for the US and the entire Middle East if Bush were to expand the war into Iran and/or Syria.

Kucinich is right!

[focusfan]

25. do you think Nancy Pelosi will do something

to stop Bush I heard she is not cutting off funding for Iraq.

[wordpix]

26. Snowjob Tony says this isn't going to be a war with Iran & we know Snowjob wouldn't

lie to the American people. :sarcasm:

Mr. Handsome PRman says, "Don't go down the road of speculation." (On Hardball now)

[Danger Mouse]

30. Not bad, Dennis, not bad at all. nt

[truthisfreedom]

31. Stay out of small planes, Congressman Kucinich, and drink your water from sealed bottles.

This administration is a mafia. You are at risk.

[heinz]

32. Iran should be attacked

I am gonna go out on a limb here, but what I would like to know, is why didn't we attack Iran first? Seems to me that the bigger threat was Iran from the very beginning. I mean honestly they have held anti-American demonstrations every weekend for the past 20 years. I suppose smirk knows one thing in his feeble mind, and that "might makes right". Maybe we don't attack Iran because we know we can't win a war against them. We can't even pacify a super weak country who's army was wiped out by us 10 years earlier. Pathetic I think.

[PATRICK]

33. What an Iran strike accomplishes

granted that an armed invasion by less than troops in the millions is ludicrous even by past Tinkerbell standards.

Disruption of the oil supply followed by US Saudi stranglehold on the markets.

Hellfire demonstration and wide war brinkmanship also blackmails world with an actual knife at the throat.

Iran destroyed politically and internally for a time.

Push for Kissinger-style new global rules as a "conciliatory" kiss and make up alternative to punishing the US.

Saudis immediately isolated even as they are empowered with legs of the triangle missing.

Enough of a mess for the WH to lead a once again duped and shocked world by the spin of cowardice and convenience. Since our own media and much of Congress has not moved adequately off the sucker spin mark it is quite possible for the sole awakening of justice and reason to get sidelined by enough of the contingent mess to divert it away from our entitled beasts.

The alternative means total neocon, US big oil failure and going to jail. The surviving WH actors have never stooped enough to bargain their way out of this fear. This has blunt Cheney madness written large over the frat brat godking's features. Casualties are unimportant in their scheme.

On edit: IF the fairy tale of a small force overwhelming Iraq into the proper state HAD worked then obviously they had plans to do the same in Iran. With the passage of time both the idiocy of this vision and the results gradually made the efforts to easily use the "Iranian opposition" fall into desuetude, though never sanely abandoned. They never were going to commit to anything too risky or hard. It is always easy to bomb something though.

[nine30]

36. Wow..a voice of sanity.

Someone actually arguing on substance! People talk of "talking" to Iran and Syria and "seeking their help" in quelling the violence when Iran and Syria are what's behind it! Trying to fight the insurgency without tackling Iran is a losing proposition. The more terrorists you kill in Iraq, the more will show up and with greater ammunition from neighboring Iran, and the more US troops will die in the process, and the longer the battle will continue. Iran should have been tackled long ago, but frankly I see little that can be done about it from the Iraq side of the border.

[jpak]

47. What horseshit

Show me the bodies of all those I-ranian insurgents.

ChimpCo would've paraded them through the streets of DC.

I call BS

[nine30]

50. For 3+ years..

..how are the supplies -- arms, ammunition and logistics , of the Iraqi insurgents being replenished and by whom ?

[jpak]

51. Rummy and Bush left dozens of former Iraqi Army weapons depots unguarded

for years.

They were looted time and time again - with impunity.

Saddam also stashed loads of weapons and ammo for his Baathist paramilitaries (fedayeen) before the war.

That's where they came from...

[Zorra]

56. My guess would be the same war profiteers that Bu*h works for. n/t

[Oak2004]

38. Iran *is* a threat, and has been for some time

and we are now too weak, both militarily and geopolitically, to rein in Iran, while Iran is gaining strength in every way, including the sympathy of other nations. We can't even afford to re-arm if China doesn't agree to front us the money.

Thank you, Mr. President :sarcasm:

[augustwest]

40. agree w/ attacking Iran, but not now

I have the same question. Iran seems, to me, the greater threat.
But the statement that we can't defeat Iran is just ludicrous.

[jpak]

48. What's the threat???

Oh, I forget - they have OUR oil...

[Amonester]

41. Why do you hate little children so much?

What have they ever done wrong to you for you'd like to see them burned alive?



Never Forget

[nine30]

44. Do you REALLY care about children ?

You post a picture of a crying child to evoke sympathy. Did you ask this question of

1. Saddam Hussein, about his killing of thousands of children in front of their parents to teach them a lesson ?

2. Saddam Hussein, about diverting oil for food money into building palaces and weaponry and starving tens of thousands of children to death

3. the regime in Iran when they publicly hanged two teenage boys on charges of homsexuality ? And also when they routinely execute unmarried teenage girls for allegedly having "male friends"

4. the Taliban regime when they used to stone young girls for whatever reason they could come up with ?

5. Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists for strapping bombs around their young kids and sending them to crowded malls and discos ?

Did you express your anger/outrage/disgust then ? Did you also post pictures of Hussein, Mullah Omar, Zawahiri, Khomeni, Ahmedinijad, Mashaal, Yassin , Nasrallah and others that morphed into that of Adolf Hitler ?

[jpak]

49. Saddam killed 37 American sailors and almost sank a US warship back in 1987

What did we do about that???

Nothing.

Reagan and Poppy Bush gave Saddam $4+ billion in guaranteed loans to prosecute his war against Iran and the Kurds...

What did we do about that???

Nothing.

Who's gonna pay back those loans...

(clue: the unborn)

RW claptrap....

[Amonester]

52. So YOUR solution is "Let's go murder 10 times more?"

Is that your final solution? Using what? "Tactical" nukes? Depleted uranium? White phosphorus? Torture? Foreign oil fields seizures?

That will work alright! :sarcasm:

[nine30]

53. Once again I will state the question..

..you post a picture of a crying child and ask us why we hate children so much. Did you, or do you, ask the same question of all those other people ?

[Amonester]

54. Once again I will state the question too:

Are you for endless wars for worldwide domination (of oil)?

[bananas]

43. They really believed the Iraqis would greet our troops with flowers

and the rest of the middle-east would topple like dominoes:
"And their Middle East plan? The US establishes a reasonably democratic, pro-western government in Iraq. When Palestinians see Iraqis beginning to enjoy real freedom and economic opportunity demand the Palestinian Authority reform politically and negotiate with Israel. A democratic Iraq will also hasten the fall of the fundamentalist Shia mullahs in Iran, whose citizens are gradually adopting anti-fanatic, pro-western sympathies. Jordan’s pro-western Hashemite monarchy would likely come into full bloom. Syria would be no more than a pale reminder of the bad old days. (If they made trouble, a US invasion would take care of them, too). The corrupt regimes of Saudi Arabia and Egypt would holdouts against the democratic tide. We could decide whether to ignore them as harmless throwbacks to the old days or deal with them, too."
http://pnac.info/index.php/2003/briefing-the-rise-of-the-washington-neo-cons

[jpak]

45. How many countries has Iran attacked in 18 years???

Do they have any justification for their nasty anti-'Merican demos???

It's not like we installed a dictator in their country...

or backed a country that attacked them (with chemical agents)...

or boycotted and embargoed them...

or shot down any of their civilian aircraft...

nothing like that at all...

:puke:

[IndianaGreen]

59. GO ahead, attack Iran and pull troops out of Afghanistan as Bush is going to do

How extraordinary it is going to be to witness the last remaining superpower's sudden collapse by losing a 3-front war. There will never be any imperial troops left to terrorize the people of Latin America.

America's defeat in Bush's Global War on Islam will save millions of innocent lives in Latin America that would have otherwise have perished under American bombs.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

34. Isn't one war enough? One war? How bout two wars

[asthmaticeog]

35. I'm constantly baffled as to why people think Dennis is nutty.

At worst, he's a Cassandra - few pay him much heed, but he's absolutely right. It's been like this for him since his career began in the '70s. :shrug:

[cyclezealot]

37. politicians must stay within the parameters of media imposed

free speech , or else they get slandered. A candidate who talks of breaking up the media. against neo liberalism trade policy. Wow. That's outside the box and the media moguls like Chris Matthews won't stand for it. Go Dennis. One of the few to get excited about.

[mvd]

60. Sometimes the visionaries take a while to get recognized

People tend to be set in their ways too often. Go DK!

[adamuu]

39. two wars

Isn't one war enough for this President?

Don't forget Afghanistan :(

[donkeyotay]

42. The latest thing "we all know" brought from the same rightwing

that "knew" we had to attack Iraq before they nuked us. We have to attack Iran because ______________? They're meddling in OUR war. We attacked Iraq fair and square. How dare they interfere?

Boy, our Christian nation sure has gotten good at dehumanizing people. The people in Iran are humans just like us. They want to live a reasonably good life and raise their children. Let's stop with the demonizing.

George is blaming Iran for his war being a dismal failure. That was crap about him taking responsibility. For the GOP, he has successfully transferred blame to Iran.

[Ouabache]

55. and Tony Snow is saying this is an 'urban legend'??

nt

[Imagevision]

57. Can't imagine Iran not wanting to bomb/waste Israel if Bush hits Iran first

[Imagevision]

61. Kucinich has it right, you can't not support the war and still fund it!!

you can't not support the war and still fund it!!

you can't not support the war and still fund it!!

you can't not support the war and still fund it!!

you can't not support the war and still fund it!!

you can't not support the war and still fund it!!

[goodhue]

62. kick