In his acceptance speech tonight, John Edwards described how he and John Kerry, if elected, would "get it right" in Iraq. (To his credit, Edwards is one of the few American politicians who seem to be able to say the word "Iraq" with appropriate pronunciation.) But Edwards seems to think that the Iraq War itself is a just and noble cause and must be fought until American victory is assured.
One would hope that Kerry and Edwards would sit down and discuss Kerry’s vaunted Vietnam experience, and seek to place the Iraq situation in the context of how peoples of BOTH nations (Iraq and Vietnam) viewed occupation and installation of puppet governments by foreign powers. Perhaps Kerry has long forgot, but the Vietnamese were fighting him and the U.S. Navy and military because Vietnam did not want its people and economy and land dominated and occupied by U.S. corporations and military forces. Nor does the Iraqi resistance. Perhaps Kerry and Edwards have failed to notice, but most progressives in America and citizens of the civilized world have judged the American invasion and occupation and War of Conquest of Iraq to be illegal and immoral. Perhaps it has failed to grab the attention of Kerry and Edwards, but the Iraqi Resistance is fighting the continued American occupation and wealth grab under the puppet regime of Alawi and what’s-his-name.
While in 2004 Kerry is insisting that his military service be honored and his "heroic" deeds held in comparison to the non-performance of George W. Bush, perhaps Kerry is forgetting that upon his return from Vietnam he judged the war to be wrong. So, does he now consider himself to be a "hero" of an immoral war? Apparently so! And apparently so does the entire Democratic establishment!
If Kerry and Edwards REALLY wanted America to take a moral stand on Iraq, they would be promising REAL sovereignty for Iraq, with an immediate pullout of American forces. As the saying goes, "there is no time like the present" to right a major wrong. There is no justification for America to be in Iraq, other than the spurious goal of controlling any emerging "democracy" by prohibiting anti-Americans from entering power and stifling all national self-interest of Iraq that might contradict American interests.
America does not need to wait for the time to be right to withdraw from Iraq, it should be done immediately, and let Iraq determine Iraq’s future independent of American influence and dominance, no matter what the political situation in Iraq might be.
Kerry and Edwards need to make their foreign policy consistent with their campaign discussion of returning America to its moral base and to respect of the other nations of the world. The whole world knows America invaded Iraq for strategic economic reasons, and the whole world will know that Kerry is doing wrong if he tries to consolidate wrong strategies of the Republican administration.
Kerry and Edwards should think in terms of what Iraqis want for themselves, not what Iraqis can do to strengthen America. The Iraqis are fighting the U.S. military in a classical guerrilla "insurgency" just like the Vietnamese did. Mr. Kerry, doesn’t that jog a few memories?
