Anti-war Howard Dean?
From a speech by Preston Wood at the recent socialist conference in NYC.
Take Howard Dean, who is portraying himself as a maverick anti-war candidate. Here’s what he’s quoted as saying in the Washington Post.
“Now that we’re in there”, he said, “We’re stuck”. “Bush’s gamble was foolish and wrong, but whoever will be elected in 2004 has to live with it. We have no choice. It’s a matter of national security. If we leave and we don’t get a democracy in Iraq the result is a very significant danger to the United States.”
Our occupation of Iraq is what makes things more dangerous for us. Continuing the occupation will simply make things more dangerous – as more join the fight against us. Have we learned nothing from the war we lost in Vietnam? Leaving Iraq will lessen the danger for everyone, including us. Plus it’s the right thing to do.
“Bringing democracy to Iraq is not a 2-year proposition. Having elections alone doesn’t guarantee democracy. You’ve got to have institutions and”, check this out, “the rule of law in a country that hasn’t had that in 3,000 years”.
Apparently Dean hasn’t heard of the Code of Hammurabi, the first written code of law in history, which originated in what is now Iraq. And to dismiss thousand of years of Iraqi and Arab culture so contemptuously is arrogant and ignorant.
He also specified that he wants a “hybrid” constitution where Iraqi have a major role but Americans have the final say(!)
And how is this different from what Bush is doing?
Preston concludes with, “For the Democrats, it’s not a discussion of whether or not Iraq should be occupied, but how to carry out the occupation”.
Addendum: While I question how Dean can be considered antiwar or how he can extract us from the Middle East quagmire, I do support him for President as he is vastly less extreme than Bush.
Meanwhile: Some Democrats, yes Democrats, are launching attack ads against Dean using images of bin Laden’s face to do so. How very George Bush-like of them.