Dennis Kucinich was right on Iraq: The Occupation is a Failure
From Bellaciao:
Quotes from Dennis Kucinich on Iraq over the last year. Dennis was right across the board, tell me again why this wisdom was 'unelectable'.
10/14/03 - "To support this war spending bill ($87 billion) would only serve to throw good money after bad... This Administration led this nation to war based on falsehoods and lies... This President should not be trusted with one more dime of taxpayer money to pay for his misguided policy."
10/28/03 - "The assertion by the President that daily attacks on US troops and innocent Iraqi civilians is ‘progress' is ridiculous and just as false and misleading as his prewar statements about the threat posed to the United States by Iraq. Mr. President, 353 dead American troops is not progress."
10/30/03 - "We need to acknowledge that the continued U.S. presence in Iraq is counterproductive. Every day that we are inside Iraq, the situation gets progressively worse, as evidenced by the frequent and more sophisticated attacks on our troops."
12/15/03 - "With Saddam Hussein captured it is time for the US to end the occupation of Iraq. The Administration's stated goal of removing him from power has now been accomplished... The Administration must seize this moment. The United States must reach out to the world community with a new plan to stabilize Iraq, bring UN peacekeepers in, and bring US troops home."
01/??/04 - from Kucinich's plan to withdraw from Iraq - "We must allow the United Nations to facilitate the creation of a democratic government that will be acceptable to the Iraqi people. No government created by the United States will be. It is better that we recognize this now than after the next 500 deaths."
06/24/04 - "My colleague has pointed out that the debate on this resolution is being covered by C-SPAN, I would suggest it should be covered by the Science Fiction Network. Let us not be fooled by this bill. The bill before us today endorses an illegal war that this nation entered into based on lies and misrepresentations. We must not forget Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, with al-Qaeda's role in 9/11. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. It was wrong to go in, and it is wrong to stay in.
"The June 30th, sovereignty date this resolution discusses is a hoax. What kind of sovereignty will Iraq have with 130,000 US troops present? What kind of sovereignty does Iraq have when the US is now selling Iraq's oil and spending the money as it sees fit?
"This bill states that we are handing Iraq a ‘safe, secure and stable' state. This could not be further from the truth.
"In effect it declares a desert an oasis, a swamp a garden, a lie the truth.
"The US occupation of Iraq is counterproductive. The continued US occupation will not end on June 30th. Make no mistake about it, on July 1st the violence will not end, the attacks will not stop and over 130,000 US troops will still be in harms way.
"It is time for us to recognize that our nation went down the wrong path. The policy is unsustainable and it is a failure. We cannot continue down this path."
09/16/04 - "After 18 months of war and occupation today we learn that the best-case scenario for the future of Iraq is continued violence and political and economic insecurity. The path this Administration has set our nation on is unsustainable. It is long past time we reevaluate what we are doing in Iraq. We cannot continue with this Administration's failed policies."
11/08/04 - "The battle for Falluja has the potential to be the bloodiest battle since the end of the Vietnam War. This battle could further destabilize Iraq, lead to a wider conflict, and further isolate the United States from the international community."
11/18/04 - "Mr. Speaker, the United States must begin to present an exit strategy in Iraq. Bombing the villages to save the villages is not an exit strategy. It is absolutely horrific that as many as 100,000 innocent civilians may have perished in Iraq. Stopping troops who have served their tour of duty from returning to their families is not an exit strategy. Expanding house-to-house fighting across Iraq is not an exit strategy. The United States must develop an exit strategy in Iraq."
12/06/04 - "Freedom, if it is to be obtained anywhere, must be advanced under the standard of truth. The Iraqis will not be handed freedom based on lies. Nor will our own nation preserve our own freedoms if we continue to accept the basis for our continued occupation of Iraq. This Administration must be held accountable under our constitution and under international law for the disaster it has visited upon Iraq. Only the truth can clean the stain on our nation's conscience."
12/20/04 - "The US occupation has failed to provide security. It's time for the Administration to be honest with the American public: Free and fair elections cannot, and will not, happen under such conditions. The January election can only be a sham."
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