Only the Democrats can lead us out of Iraq.

[jocapo]

I think it's time for the Democratic Party to start campaigning more aggressively for a more enlightened foreign policy. They should be emphasizing that because the rest of the world has been shut out by the B*sh administration it will take a regime change before the USA gets help from the UN or the international community. Everyone agrees that it's imperative to have help from the international community, right? I think it's clear that the only way to do that is to put the Democrats in charge, period.

I'd like to see the democratic presidential candidates meeting with leaders from around the world and the democratic leadership. Holding press conferences discussing what foreign policy would look like with the Democrats in charge. I'd like to see the Democratic Party emphasizing Democrats ability and desire to work with the world community to make a better and safer world.

The elephant in the room is that B*sh won't and can't change his policies and any discussion re that policy is nibbling around the edges. It's time for the Democratic leadership to stand up and announce to the world that there is an elephant in the room and tell us what they intend to do about it!

[IndianaGreen]

1. Only Kucinich can get us out of Iraq at a date certain!

the other Democratic candidates have bought into the morally indefensible "we broke it, we fix it" philosophy that will lead them into the same Vietnam pitfalls of "peace with honor."

Only Kucinich can get us out of Iraq at a date certain!

[jocapo]

2. I don't buy the all or nothing answer

to Iraq. I don't think that we should simply pull out or stubbornly stay in at any cost. We did break it and unfortunately we are responsible for fixing it, but I think we can get international help as soon the democrats are in charge.

[tlcandie]

5. Anyone in their right mind wouldn't walk away and never look back..

Kucinich is no different. If we can get past the ALL OUT MASS EXODUS OF US TROOPS, then one might see that DK would be asking for the UN to intervene. His platform on this follows linked:

http://www.kucinich.us/statements.htm#100903

<snip>
The President must go to the UN and announce the US intention to hand over all administrative and security responsibilities to the UN. The UN would help Iraqis move quickly toward self-determination.
The UN, not the US, will administer Iraq’s oil revenues. It will be necessary to renounce clearly and unequivocally any interest in controlling Iraq’s oil resources.
The UN will administer contracts to repair Iraq. War profiteering will no longer be practiced by the White House. It will be necessary to suspend all reconstruction contracts and close the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority, because of the suspicion caused by the sweetheart deals that the Administration has given to large American corporations. In its place, the UN would help Iraqis administer funds to employ Iraqis to repair the damage from the invasion.
<snip>

<snip>
The US owes a moral debt to the people of Iraq for the damage caused by the US invasion. The US will also owe a contribution to the UN to help Iraq make the transition to self-government. American taxpayers deserve that their contributions be handled in an accountable, transparent manner. However, Americans are not required to build a state-of-the-art infrastructure as the Administration is planning. The Administration is ordering for top shelf technology from US corporations for Iraq and paid for by US taxpayers. Sweetheart deals have been awarded with billions of dollars to top corporations and political contributors. That is precisely what corrupts the Administration’s reconstruction efforts today. Instead, Iraqis should be employed to repair Iraq, and US taxpayers should pay only for the damage caused by the US invasion, including compensation for its victims. US taxpayers should not be asked, however, to furnish for Iraq what we do not have here.
<snip>

LOTS more if you care to search it out! :hi: :bounce:

[quaker bill]

10. We did break it.

We need to buy it. Cutting and running is not morally defensible.

Getting our troops out of there asap is the right course.

Letting the Iraqi's govern themselves, however they wish to do so, is moral.

Simply bailing and washing our hands of it is morally repugnant and only compounds the crime committed by going ther in the first place.

Dennis has some good ideas on this. No doubt, ending it sooner rather than later is best. Ideas are one thing, implementation is another. What about Bush* does not make this notion clear.

But we cannot just dump this mess on the rest of the world. Who in their right mind would take it?

It is going to take a lot of $ and some time to cure this problem.

[Demobrat]

3. Dean has touched on this.

I wish they would all hammer it. It's true. Bush cannot get help from the UN. America can, but not until we prove to the world that Bush is not acting in our names. If we are going to get our troops any support at all we must get rid of Bush, period.

[jocapo]

4. Amen.

I want my party to show it's patriotism by rescuing our country form the radicals in the white house!

[Tinoire]

6. Correction

because your statement is waaaay too simplistic- only the Democrats who did not enable, participate in, rationalize, or in ANY way encourage, this Iraq fiasco can get us out.

The Democratic party, as a whole, did not embrace a more enlightened foreign policy before this. Remember please, that our Clinton administration starved and bombed Iraq incessantly for 8 years.

Your statement only applies if your problem is with the execution and mis-handling of Iraq. If your problem is with the immorality of what took place, then you can't rely on the same people who co-operated with this to get us out. Several did not but they were few and still are. There is only one Democrat running in whom I believe anymore and that is Dennis Kucinich. He is the only one running who clearly, consistently, and from the very beginning has opposed this. He is the only one who never rationalized away even a single aspect of this obscenity and to this day, the only one calling for a humane, moral end to this imperialistic venture.

I totally agree with the spirit of your post though and particularly like your last sentence

It's time for the Democratic leadership to stand up and announce to the world that there is an elephant in the room and tell us what they intend to do about it!

[jocapo]

7. If only democrats had listened to Kucinich

and millions of people around the world before the war we wouldn't be here now. I'd love to hear the administration or the republican leadership say: "...Dennis Kucinich was right...", but I'd settle for the democratic leadership.

[quaker bill]

11. Agreed

Dennis and 15 million others were right.

[RichM]

8. This is naive BS. Most Democrats are B*sh collaborators, not opponents

Your post starts out "I think it's time for the Democratic Party to start campaigning more aggressively ..."

- No offense, but have you been paying attention to the last few years? Most Democrats don't fight Bush on anything. He can steal elections, publicly call Democrats "unpatriotic," lie about reasons for going to war, demand $87 billion to fund the ongoing criminal occupation -- and most Democrats do nothing more "aggressive" than roll over on their backs.

You're suffering from a common delusion. Democrats, with a handful of honorable exceptions -- like the ones who voted "No" yesterday -- are no better than Republicans. In fact, they're even worse, because they pretend to be the "party of ordinary citizens," while actually collaborating with Republicans on almost everything.

It's remarkable that after years of nothing but betrayals and cowardly sellouts, Dem Party loyalists persist in this laughable delusion of moral superiority.

[jocapo]

9. You're right: "Most dems don't fight b*sh on anything."

Maybe I should have said "It's about time..." or "It's high time..." but the point is IT'S TIME!! No better time than the present to get some backbone!

[tlcandie]

12. Maybe we should remove ourselves from the old dem line and

name ourselves Democrats for a RENEWED AMerica..? Or something similar.

Democrats to TAKE BACK AMERICA!