Yesterday Senator Kerry posted and cross posted on The Escalation Didn't Work. Senator Kerry didn't mince words, he wasn't about to let the parsing and spinning take away from the fact that the escalation was not the right answer and just another in a line of failed policies of this administration.
Judgment time is here, and the only verdict is the same one we had in January, the same one we've had for a long time in Iraq: the Bush policy is a tragic failure. It's a policy that not only isn't working; it can't work. A political solution in Iraq cannot come about without a clear deadline on where our troops will be pulling out. Only Iraqis can end this civil war, and they aren't - and won't be - making any progress with an open-ended, massive presence by our military in their country.
He took time out in his busy schedule to respond to several questions and to make clear that this is not preaching to the choir:
Believe me, I intend on making this case as forcefully as I can as often as I can. Although you are selling yourself short there, many, many people read what happens here, from politicians to journalists. So making a case here is not just "preaching to the choir." A lot of others are listening in to the choir in this case. As for coordinating message, I think that's part of what we do here. This isn't a grass tops campaign, it's a grassroots campaign. One thing about Democrats: We don't march in lockstep and take orders, and I wouldn't want to belong to a party that did. But we're as united as we've ever been on this, and media reports to the contrary are overblown. Keep in mind “only one Democrat wasn't on board with our deadline the last vote we had. Harry Reid put himself on the line fighting for the Reid-Feingold amendment to fund a very different mission and change course. Don't underestimate those decisions. We've got a ways to go, but I've seen how the perseverance of you, me, and a lot of folks is paying off. We need to keep fighting.
In his opening statement of the SFRC Hearing on the Independent Assessment by the GAO, Senator Kerry goes over the assessment and concludes: "We cannot continue to ask Americans to die for a policy that can't work or is based on a shifting rationale".
You can watch the complete hearing at the SFRC website (real player only). Links to the GAO report card and complete report are in this post.
Stay tuned for next week's hearing on the Crocker-Patraeus White House Report. It's scheduled for Tuesday, September 11th at 9:30 a.m.
Comments (4)
Posted by wisteria | September 6, 2007 11:47 AM
Thanks for this informative post. it is so nice to have all this well researched information presented in one post.
Posted by fedup | September 6, 2007 4:25 PM
Just received this and couldn't think of a better way to support our troops and helping to end this war.
A very worthy cause.
Posted by fedup | September 6, 2007 8:22 PM
Bush in Australia:
Posted by ProSense | September 6, 2007 9:29 PM
Senator Kerry's post was an excellent counter to the spin. He called it what right: failed escalation.
Thanks for the link to the hearing.