Dean Cites Terror Alert As Vindication ....Guardian

[madfloridian]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3579159,00.html

SNIP..."NASHUA, N.H. (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean on Friday cited the higher terror alert and the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in arguing that he was right to say Saddam Hussein's capture didn't make America safer.

``They got all excited, but here we are,'' Dean told a town-hall meeting. ``We've lost 10 more troops and F-16s are escorting foreign passenger jets into our air space because we're now more worried than we were before.''

SNIP.."``I can assure you it's not Saddam who's threatening to bomb airplanes,'' Dean said. ``It's al-Qaida. We've not paid attention to al-Qaida. We've spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target.''

Dean said even though he opposed the Iraq war, his greatest fear now is that ``this administration will pull out of Iraq too early for political reasons,'' Dean said.

[durutti]

1. Well said.

I'm glad someone's saying it.

[killbotfactory]

2. This should be repeated as often as possible.

``We've spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target.''

[slinkerwink]

3. dean basically is saying that the emperor has no clothes!

[w13rd0]

4. you read...

...Mitchell Gore's bit too, eh? ;)

[madfloridian]

20. So I am repeating it.

``We've spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target.''

[Scott Lee]

5. Dean must get sick of being right.

But have no fear. The next new thread of outrage against him is surely in the making.

[AntiCoup2K4]

6. Another home run hit for Howard!

Personally, I think the terror threats are complete bullshit. But by insisting the danger is real, the Fraudministration (not to mention the DLC hit squad) has to admit that the Doc was right when he said we are no safer with Saddam in custody.

[stickdog]

7. Of course he was right.

Thank God somebody has the guts to at least broach the truth on this.

[Padraig18]

8. He's absolutely right!

Stick THAT in your ear, Joe, et al! :grr:

[robbedvoter]

9. Oh, goody! he's hit the trifecta then?

Love I told you so when the country is terrorised by W. What's next? Hooray, the economy is in the tank?
He has a gift od saying things that are technically right in a way that is grating everyone.

[madfloridian]

10. Left-handed compliment?

:D

[Padraig18]

14. If they were leading the pack, they'd be less irriatated.

Be honest, now; don't you agree that a lot of what they find 'grating' wouldn't be so grating if they were in the lead? :shrug:

[Rose Siding]

11. This is front page on the Boston Globe site, too n/t

[Guaranteed]

12. -LEADERSHIP-

The roll-over Dems could learn something from this.

[Lobo_13]

13. See what happens . . .

when you tell the truth and stick to your guns?

There is a lesson here for all who are willing to find it.

[Padraig18]

15. yep!

:hi:

[revcarol]

16. Sorta sneaky little aside...

the Bush admin. might pull out of Iraq early for political reasons...of course they might, knowing Bushies, but maybe implies that others who want us to pull us out of Iraq have political reasons???

[mot78]

17. This quote is interesting

Dean said even though he opposed the Iraq war, his greatest fear now is that ``this administration will pull out of Iraq too early for political reasons,'' Dean said.

Dean could use that to run to the right of * in the GE.

[mouse7]

18. We can't leave destroyed Iraq in power vacuum

Even Kucinich wouldn't leave Iraq without troops of some kind present in Iraq to make sure Iraq isn't the next Afghanistan.

Dumbya hasn't finished a damn thing in his life. He's quit and run away from everything that was a little tough he's touched.

We need to get UN troops into Iraq under a UN mandate.

[madfloridian]

19. He means we broke it, we have to get others in to help fix it.....

before we just pull out. I think that is right.

That has been his stance in every debate, in every speech, it is no secret.

[zulchzulu]

21. So Dean is now "for the war"

Call it what you want, but Dean is saying he'd stay in Iraq, i.e. still continuing the war. How does that make all the people who think Dean is not for war feel?

Ah, never mind. You'll think it's great... except that his position on the war is identical to Kerry's and others that want the UN to come in and set up a multinational force, as Kerry originally intended IF we were to even go to war, which would have been as a last resort and AFTER the UN had gone in and found the WMDs that Bush was drumming up in lies in the first place.

[dd123]

22. Dean greatly dislikes irresponsibility.

Seems to me that is his biggest gripe w/Bush

[mouse7]

23. The difference between Kerry and Dean is SHOCK AND AWE

Dean said don't invade Iraq, focus on Afghanistan and finding a solution to the North Korean mess.

Kerry allowed Dumbya to Shock and Awe Iraq, leaving Iraq with no working infrastructure.

If Dean's ideas had been done, we'd be slowly working on eventually getting rid of Saddam, negotiating the elimination of North Korea's nukes, and the military would be finishing the job of hunting down Al Queda in Afghanistan.

Thanks to Dumbya and Kerry, the Taliban is regrouping in Afghanistan, and Al-Queda is growing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Oh, yeah, North Korea also has working nukes and lots of new processed nuclear materials, too. Iraq's infrustructure is a bombed out disaster. If Dumbya has his way, a oil empire-friendly puppet will be left in charge in Iraq with a skeleton force that will get ooverthrown by Islamic extremists within months instead of allowing an International force of sufficient size to keep Iraq from decending into chaos.

This is what all that "foreign policy experience" of Kerry's has gotten for us. Al Queda strong in two countries, N. Korea with a model nuclear weapons production program, and an Iraq that will devolve into chaos with months, even weeks after the US runs away.

[zulchzulu]

25. Here we go again

Dean was for the first Gulf War (Kerry wasn't), for the Afghanistan War and originally for the present Gulf War and even supported a unilateral strike at the time that the vote was cast, thus pretty much putting him in the same crowd as Lieberman, Gephardt and Bush. Not Kerry.

Blaming Kerry for Bush's failures in Afghanistan when Kerry is on record demanding that working on the al-Qeada problem instead of attacking Iraq unilaterally is pure misinformation.

Much like what your candidate is good at...

[madfloridian]

27. Why do you have trouble with not "anti-war" but "anti-Iraq war"?

Every speech, every time he talks out he makes clear he is not anti-war if it is needed.

He is opposed to this war on moral grounds. It was an invasion.

[mouse7]

34. Spin, spin, and spin again... KERRY VOTED FOR WAR IN IRAQ

Kerry voted to invade Iraq.

Kerry voted to invade Iraq.

Kerry voted to invade Iraq.

Kerry voted to invade Iraq.

[mandyky]

24. I know, it kills me when the media portrays Dean as anti-war

While he was against Iraq, he knows we have to finish what we started. Often the media gets him confused with Kucinich, I think.
Dean and CMB are the only anti-war (Iraq) candidates who realize now that we are there we have to stay.

Hmm, maybe a Dean/Braun ticket would work...

[Gloria]

30. You forgot that Clark knows we have to stay to finish up...and has

presented a detailed plan..

Dean and CMB are not he ONLY ones.....

[Scott Lee]

31. But does that plan include cleaning up our war mess?

To me that's a huge prerequisite for approval.

[zulchzulu]

26. Is Dean going to predict that snow will be coming this winter?

Wow! What a guy...

:puffpiece:

[madfloridian]

28. Yes, he is quite a guy.

Thanks for noticing that.

[Gloria]

29. HOWEVER, the GOP have a couple of things in their arsenal including

Libya--Now, real reports (like I've heard on the BBC) will say that Libya is not exactly within the same sphere as the rest of the Arab Nations and that this rapprochment has been going on for 10 years (Clark has said that, too)...but the Bush machine is pointing to this as a direct result of Iraq...

Iran--agreeing to let inspectors in from the International Atomic Energy group...negotiating also for quite awhile...but another thing that will be used evidence that Iraq has shaken up the Arabic Nations and the region.

As I heard a Canadian diplomat discuss today--perception often wins out over what is really going at the (geo)political level....

So, you can bet, this broad statement by Dean will be picked apart, no problem. Esp. with a shocking % of Americans believing that Saddam and Al-Qaeda are related.......

[madfloridian]

33. You don't think Dean should try to get the truth out the connection?

I do.
There were some articles someone posted there that Libya had been trying to cooperate for a couple of years.. Will have to find them.

Yes I think it is time to try to get the truth out.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

32. According to Hackworth that casualty number is over 20,000.

Makes an even stronger point.

[madfloridian]

35. I noticed that, does make a stronger point.

:hi:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

36. If the press would just do their damn job....

[DFLforever]

37. I'll be candid - I love the way the good doctor triumphed on this issue

and the way the other cringing Dems betrayed their true colors on the war - but it's a pity that the innocent and the young, American and Iraqi, continue to pay a terrible price for the duplicity of the Bush administration and the self-serving calculations of our Democratic leadership.