Once again, thank you Dr. Dean!

[FredScuttle]

Call him The Seer....Howard Dean's speech to Drake University, 2/17/03

I believe it is my patriotic duty to urge a different path to protecting America's security: To focus on al Qaeda, which is an imminent threat, and to use our resources to improve and strengthen the security and safety of our home front and our people while working with the other nations of the world to contain Saddam Hussein. . . .

Had I been a member of the Senate, I would have voted against the resolution that authorized the President to use unilateral force against Iraq - unlike others in that body now seeking the presidency.

That the President was given open-ended authority to go to war in Iraq resulted from a failure of too many in my party in Washington who were worried about political positioning for the presidential election.

The stakes are so high, this is not a time for holding back or sheepishly going along with the herd.

To this day, the President has not made a case that war against Iraq, now, is necessary to defend American territory, our citizens, our allies, or our essential interests.

The Administration has not explained how a lasting peace, and lasting security, will be achieved in Iraq once Saddam Hussein is toppled.

I, for one, am not ready to abandon the search for better answers.

As a doctor, I was trained to treat illness, and to examine a variety of options before deciding which to prescribe. I worried about side effects and took the time to see what else might work before proceeding to high-risk measures. . . .

We have been told over and over again what the risks will be if we do not go to war.

We have been told little about what the risks will be if we do go to war.

If we go to war, I certainly hope the Administration's assumptions are realized, and the conflict is swift, successful and clean. I certainly hope our armed forces will be welcomed like heroes and liberators in the streets of Baghdad.

I certainly hope Iraq emerges from the war stable, united and democratic.

I certainly hope terrorists around the world conclude it is a mistake to defy America and cease, thereafter, to be terrorists.

It is possible, however, that events could go differently, . . . .

Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms.

Anti-American feelings will surely be inflamed among the misguided who choose to see an assault on Iraq as an attack on Islam, or as a means of controlling Iraqi oil.

And last week's tape by Osama bin Laden tells us that our enemies will seek relentlessly to transform a war into a tool for inspiring and recruiting more terrorists.

There are other risks. Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms....(snip)


One of many bitter conclusions to the 2004 campaign, for me, was how in the hell was this guy not our candidate?

[napi21]

1. Howard was not our candidate because he was new enough to politics that he

believed it was a fair fight! I must say Joe Trippi didn't do him any favour either! Joe's been around long enough to know how politics works, and I suspect he didn't!

I love the fact that Howard is the Chair of the DNC, and I believe him when he says he will NOT run in 08 because he promised he would serve out his term as chair. I think he's helping a lot in politics at the State levels, and I only wish he could call a weekend seminar of ALL Dem Reps & Sens and those hoping to get elected, and teach them how to speak to the American people in a way they understand!

[cali]

3. Nah, Howard wasn't new to politics

He was Governor of Vermont for 11 years. He ran for that office 5 times. Before that he was Lt. Guv, and prior to that he was a state senator. During his tenure as Guv, he chaired both the Governor's Association and the Dem Governor's Association. He's always said what's on him mind. It's just who he is.

[cali]

2. And for this, he's constantly belittled, sneered at

and called a lunatic by the repukes, while often being cold shouldered by his own party. Pretty depressing. I too, wish he'd been the candidate regardless of whether he won or lost. At least I felt he was courageous enough to plainly state what he believed.

[Cha]

4. Sigh..

Dean is a "Seer"..but as my son says.."Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda." Dean is suppose to be where he is now..moving us toward victory in 2006 and Kerry is where he is..helping us in the Senate.

We need all of us to work together to get the bush dics outta their squatting positions.

[mandyky]

5. Ever since Howard Dean ran, many of his "seeings"

have come to pass, and just shake my head, and say what a wise man, and how come he did not get to be our nominee.

[cal04]

6. Whose judgment on the Iraq War is entitled to respect?

Can anyone dispute that Dean was right about virtually every prediction and claim he made, every warning that he issued about why invading Iraq was ill-advised and counter-productive? Compare this outright prescience from Dean to the war supporters’ declarations of cakewalks, predictions of glorious victory celebrations, promises that the war would pay for itself, Purple Finger celebrations where they insisted that democracy was upon us, errors regarding the number of troops needed, inexcusable failure to anticipate or plan the insurgency, and shrill fear-mongering about Saddam’s non-existent weapons.

Americans long ago abandoned Bush’s war once they realized that the premises on which the war was justified were false. But while this war was George Bush’s from start to finish - and he will live with it forever ignominiously tagged to him in history – it is now America’s war as well. And as the country decides what course of action we ought to take to extricate ourselves from this disaster, it is worth remembering whose judgment was so accurate and wise and whose judgment was so horribly wrong in every respect.

Democrats ought to be eager to make national security a critical issue for this year's elections. After all, Bush and his followers are responsible for the single worst strategic error made by the United States during our lifetimes, perhaps in the country's history.

--posted by Glenn Greenwald
http://www.crooksandliars.com/stories/2006/02/25/whoseJudgmentOnTheIraqWarIsEntitledToRespect.html