Dean's speech Feb. 17, 2003, before the war began.

[madfloridian]

It speaks for itself. It was early in 2003, just as we started noticing his campaign. If you take it as prescient and knowing, and not make it about the campaign itself...it is powerful. This is about truth, pure and simple. It is about how we got where we are today.

At that time he had not officially entered, nor had others. This is not about the campaign. This is about what he saw and thought early on. Compare it to what we are seeing today in Iraq and around the world. We are becoming isolated, and we are no longer the world power we used to be. It did not take long.

Dean's speech from Feb. 2003

Our country needs to have national security policies that protect the interests of the American people. To do that, those policies must keep us safe and well defended against the myriad threats we face. But they cannot succeed unless they also reflect the kind of people we are, the values we share, the hopes we have, and the ideals that hold us together as a nation.

I am worried that many of the policies the Bush Administration is pursuing today do not provide the best means of defending our interests, and do not reflect the fundamental values of our people.

But I would not be doing my job as a citizen if I did not state my own conviction about where I believe we could do better.

The stakes are so high, this is not a time for holding back or sheepishly going along with the herd. I believe that the President too often employs a reckless, go-it-alone approach that drives us away from some of our longest-standing and most important allies, when what we need is to pull the world community together in common action against the imminent threat of terrorism.

I believe that the President undercuts our long-term national security interests and the established international order when he seeks to replace decades of bipartisan consensus on the use of American force with a new doctrine justifying preemptive attacks against other nation states - not because of their current action or imminent threat, but to preempt a threat that could arise in the future.

And I firmly believe that the President is focusing our diplomats, our military, our intelligence agencies, and even our people on the wrong war, at the wrong time, when our energy and our resources should be marshaled for the greatest threats we face. Yes, Saddam Hussein is evil. But Osama bin Laden is also evil, and he has attacked the United States, and he is preparing now to attack us again.

SNIP..."I do not believe the President should have been given a green light to drive our nation into conflict without the case having first been made to Congress and the American people for why this war is necessary, and without a requirement that we at least try first to work through the United Nations.

That the President was given open-ended authority to go to war in Iraq resulted from a failure of too many in my party in Washington who were worried about political positioning for the presidential election."

And if we believe terrorists - especially if they are terrorists linked to al Qaeda - have set up a poison and explosives training center in Northern Iraq outside Saddam Hussein's control, why haven't we verified that information and destroyed that camp?

We know that Saddam will get away with whatever he can.

But what can he get away with as long as Iraq is inspected, under constant surveillance, surrounded, grounded because of no fly zones, and barred from receiving weapons and other strategic materials?

The CIA and Defense Department have indicated that, by far, the most likely scenario for Saddam using chemical or biological weapons - or sponsoring a terrorist attack - would be precisely if we invaded Iraq, because then he would have nothing to lose. "

"Three decades after the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, the United States continues to consume 40 percent of the world's oil. That is a failure of American policy and an unacceptable danger to the American people. Because it means we are sending billions of dollars annually to countries financing radical educational systems that teach young people to hate Christians, Jews and Americans. That is crazy, because we know these schools are prime recruiting grounds for terrorists."


More at the link

[MaggieSwanson]

1. I love that speech. n/t

[Cha]

2. Yeah, there was no way we should

have invaded Iraq..we predicted the very tragedy that is happening RIGHT NOW!

"We know that Saddam will get away with whatever he can.

But what can he get away with as long as Iraq is inspected, under constant surveillance, surrounded, grounded because of no fly zones, and barred from receiving weapons and other strategic materials?"

I saw some people tonight I hadn't seen in awhile, who were with me at the Dean Meetups(remember them?..I know you do!) and some were still wearing their Dean hats. I said.."Dean!, we sure picked a winner, didn't we? They just smiled and said "Yes". :)

[madfloridian]

3. There were people not seen in ages.

Several mentioned coming back to join DEC, and some wanted to know where the DFA meetings are held. Our local paper won't put the meetings in. I got them in one month only, but after that nothing.

We had over 90 in the 90 degree heat....it was an amazing crowd for this area. The paper was there, and I think a TV station.