On Fox: Dean Supports Aggressive, Interventionist Military Policy. OKaay!

[Raya]

Dean Advisor on Fox saying that Dean can campaign south and in the Midwest because he is a fiscal conservative and supports an aggressive, robust and interventionist military policy. He supported the Gulf War, called for unilateral intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo, and supported the war in Afghanistan.

So now we know. Wish they had put that out when they were co-opting our anti-war movement

[youngred]

1. Well he does

he favours a model close to Clinton's for intervention.

Dean is no Anti-Warrior.

[Fleshdancer]

2. You didn't know Dean supported the Gulf War, Bosnia, and Afghanistan war??

I did. Then again, I researched the candidates so I knew this real early on.

[TLM]

3. How many fucking times does Dean have to say he's NOT anti-war

he is anti-war without justification?


Dean has pointed out his support for a strong military and things like the first Iraq war, Afghanistan, and kosovo in just about every speech where he addressed military issues for the last 6 months.

[Fleshdancer]

11. Exactly

Dean spoke out against the Iraqi war because he thought it was the wrong war at the wrong time.

People here get so mad at the ridiculous RW media, but then they turn around and believe the media when they say Dean is "anti-war".

All you have to do to get the facts on this is *gasp* research a little. Heaven forbid anyone go to the Dean website to read his positions rather than rely on CNN, FAUX, MSNBC, etc...

[displacedtexan]

4. What?

:wtf:

[blm]

5. Don't forget he was OK with Reagan/Bush's illegal wars in Central America,

while John Kerry was trying to expose them.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Kerry supports the same imperialist policies in Latin America

Kerry supports Plan Colombia, and he supported our nasty dirty wars in El Salvador, Guatemala, etc.

Did Kerry ever speak out against the US-backed coup against President Chavez in Venezuela?

[TLM]

14. HUH Dean wasn't in national politics in the 80's

He only become Gov of Vermont in 90 or 91.


Talk about desperation.

[Cuban_Liberal]

18. Proof? Link? Citation?

First I've heard about it, blm.

[blm]

22. Dean had "mixed feelings"...after everything we know today about that time

and Dean couldn't take a stand against Reagan and Bush's actions? Instead he's trying to make himself sound hawkish enough to mainstream America.



"Such sentiments have been misinterpreted by assorted Beltway savants as a leftward lurch by Democratic Party activists; it seems more a reaction to the rightward lurch of the Republicans. Dean, who has been mischaracterized as the reincarnation of George McGovern, is certainly no traditional liberal or even a traditional dove. "I told the peace people not to fall in love with me," he told me over breakfast in Manchester, N.H., last week. He said he had opposed Vietnam, but he had supported the first Gulf War, the interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the war in Afghanistan. In the 1980s he had "mixed feelings" about Ronald Reagan's support for the contras in Nicaragua and opposed a unilateral nuclear freeze. "I'm not a pacifist. I believe there are times when pre-emptive force is justified, but there has to be an immediate threat, and there just wasn't in this case."

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,464429,00.html

[cavebat2000]

More importantly Kerry supported the Iraq war

That seems to matter the most to me

[blm]

24. Dean supported use of force resolution in Biden-Lugar.

That was unilateral with Bush making the final determination. The only added step was that Bush had to write a letter to the Speaker of the House and the pres pro tem of the Senate.

He has been able to obscure that small difference because most of the press were too lazy to notice that back in the fall of 2002, Dean said he would vote for Biden-Lugar.

[pacifictiger]

21. most people outside of government were ignorant

as to what was really going on with the republican mercenaries in central america. Kerry probably had more info into the truth at that time because of his veteran connections.

[blm]

25. no. Dean said he has "mixed feelings" about it NOW.

The only way anyone could have mixed feelings about it now is if they supported it then. Dean was always a HAWK.

[killbotfactory]

6. I wouldn't support Dean if he was anti-war

Since he wasn't, and I knew from the beginning because I actually read his positions and listened to him talk, I have no problem supporting him.

Being against Bush's stupid Iraq war is just common sense.

[TheWebHead]

7. that line is on his stump speech

I think I've heard him say it about 300 times.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. One of Dean's strengths is that on any issue, whatever your stance,

Dean agrees with you.

[Fleshdancer]

17. riiiiight.

:eyes: and that's why he said "If you're looking for an anti-war candidate, I'm not your man".

It was a line in his stump speech last summer. Not exactly agreeing with everyone's stance. Nice try though.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

27. That's my point

whether it is anti-war or pro-war -- whatever issue, you can find times where Dean was for it, times where he was against it.


Here's another good example, talking about the Israel/Palestine issue:

"We have to stop terrorism before peace negotiations"
http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.11.22/news3.html

said he didn't "believe stopping the terror has to be a prerequisite for talking."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/10/elec04.prez.dean.mideast

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. I support interventionalism sometimes..this endears Dean to me more

My issue with him is he is no less a politician than the rest, but claims he isn't.

[TexasSissy]

10. He's changed his message a bit. Like the voters won't catch on?

[wtmusic]

16. Hasn't changed at all

Same message from the very start.

[Fleshdancer]

20. the informed voters know he hasn't changed his message on this one bit.

a little research goes a looooong way.

[wtmusic]

13. Hey, what's wrong with intervening

Let's intervene when the world agrees with us though...

[not systems]

15. He is an owl not a dove.

He asks who, why, where and when.

He was against the Iraq war because these question were
not answered fully or truthfully.

[slinkerwink]

19. lol! We already KNEW this!

[pacifictiger]

23. most people's perception

of Dean's position on various issues is from corporate media sound bites taken out of contest, as this past week so dramatically proved. Even though I had read info on the website and was impressed, I really was not convinced until I was able to watch him, unedited, on cspan and compare him with the other unedited candidates on an equal footing. And now I am a diehard supporter. I am so grateful to cspan - that is a real tool of democracy in action. Too bad it is not available to more people in this country. For those that can access it, too many people are working too hard to have much time to watch.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

26. You had to pay close attention to figure this out... the media fell down

n/t

[blm]

28. The media still hasn't figured out that Biden-Lugar is a prowar

position just as much as the IWR.