Home > Dennis Kucinich was right on Iraq: The Occupation is a Failure

Dennis Kucinich was right on Iraq: The Occupation is a Failure

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 2 January 2005
13 comments

Wars and conflicts International USA

Quotes from Dennis Kucinich on Iraq over the last year. Dennis was right
across the board, tell me again why this wisdom was ’unelectable’.

10/14/03 - “To support this war spending bill ($87 billion) would only serve to throw
good money after bad... This Administration
led this nation to war based on falsehoods and lies... This President
should not be trusted with one more dime of taxpayer money to pay for
his misguided policy."

10/28/03 - "The assertion by the President that daily attacks on US troops and innocent Iraqi civilians is ‘progress’ is ridiculous and just as false and misleading as his
prewar statements about the threat posed to the United States by Iraq. Mr. President, 353 dead American troops is not progress."


10/30/03 - “We need to acknowledge that the continued U.S. presence in Iraq is counterproductive. Every
day that we are inside Iraq, the situation gets progressively worse, as
evidenced by the frequent and more sophisticated attacks on our troops."

12/15/03 - “With Saddam Hussein captured it is time for the US to end the occupation of Iraq. The
Administration’s stated goal of removing him from power has now been
accomplished... The Administration
must seize this moment. The United States must reach out to the world
community with a new plan to stabilize Iraq, bring UN peacekeepers in,
and bring US troops home.”

01/??/04 - from Kucinich’s plan to withdraw from Iraq - "We
must allow the United Nations to facilitate the creation of a
democratic government that will be acceptable to the Iraqi people. No
government created by the United States will be. It is better that we
recognize this now than after the next 500 deaths."

06/24/04 - “My colleague has pointed out that the debate on this resolution is being
covered by C-SPAN, I would suggest it should be covered by the Science
Fiction Network. Let us not be fooled by this bill. The bill before us
today endorses an illegal war that this nation entered into based on
lies and misrepresentations. We must not forget Iraq had nothing to do
with 9/11, with al-Qaeda’s role in 9/11. Iraq had no weapons of mass
destruction. It was wrong to go in, and it is wrong to stay in.

“The June 30th, sovereignty date this resolution discusses is a hoax.
What kind of sovereignty will Iraq have with 130,000 US troops present?
What kind of sovereignty does Iraq have when the US is now selling Iraq’s oil and spending the money as it sees fit?

“This bill states that we are handing Iraq a ‘safe, secure and stable’ state. This could not be further from the truth.

“In effect it declares a desert an oasis, a swamp a garden, a lie the truth.

“The US occupation of Iraq is counterproductive. The continued US
occupation will not end on June 30th. Make no mistake about it, on July
1st the violence will not end, the attacks will not stop and over 130,000 US
troops will still be in harms way.

“It is time for us to recognize that our nation went down the wrong
path. The policy is unsustainable and it is a failure. We cannot continue down this path."



09/16/04 - “After 18 months of war and occupation today we learn that the
best-case scenario for the future of Iraq is continued violence and
political and economic insecurity. The path this
Administration has set our nation on is unsustainable. It is long past
time we reevaluate what we are doing in Iraq. We cannot continue with
this Administration’s failed policies."

11/08/04 - “The battle for Falluja has the potential to be the bloodiest battle since
the end of the Vietnam War. This battle could further destabilize Iraq,
lead to a wider conflict, and further isolate the United States from
the international community."


11/18/04 - “Mr. Speaker, the United States must begin to present an exit strategy in
Iraq. Bombing the villages to save the villages is not an exit
strategy. It is absolutely horrific that as many as 100,000 innocent
civilians may have perished in Iraq. Stopping troops who have served
their tour of duty from returning to their families is not an exit
strategy. Expanding house-to-house fighting across Iraq is not an exit
strategy. The United States must develop an exit strategy in Iraq."

12/06/04 - “Freedom, if it is to be obtained anywhere, must be advanced under the standard
of truth. The Iraqis will not be handed freedom based on
lies. Nor will our own nation preserve our own freedoms if we
continue to accept the basis for our continued occupation of Iraq. This
Administration must be held accountable under our constitution and
under international law for the disaster it has visited upon
Iraq. Only the truth can clean the stain on our nation’s
conscience.”

12/20/04 - "The US occupation has failed to provide security. It’s time for the Administration to be honest with the American public: Free and fair elections cannot, and will not, happen under such conditions. The January election can only be a sham."

Forum posts

  • Dennis Kucinich is the best thing America has going right now. It is time we start listening to him. We must bring the troops home now ALIVE, while we still have some.

    The same media that lied to sell us the war, and has been lying ever since to prop up the Bush Administration, also lied to sell us John Kerry. Funny how the mainstream media was completely biased toward John Kerry during the primaries, gave him all the speaking time at the debates, but then turned on him after the convention. We were set up. The democratic party was never united behind Kerry, we just supported him because he supposedly could beat Bush. And then in the face of massive election fraud, John Kerry dissappears. He isn’t even going to be in DC on January 6. We were set up.

    The whole election was staged so they could keep going on their ’war on terror’ terrorizing the good people of Iraq and Iran and wherever else. It is time for ’we the people’ to realize that we are united against this war and it is our responsibility to stop the senseless killing now. We must stand up together and demand truth and justice.

    What happens if they throw a war and nobody shows up?

    conscientious objector

    http://www.objector.org/coclaim.html

    • George Bush was AWOL and Cheney was a draft dodger ! Its really amazing to me to see why these two guys have the nerve to send young men to a war (that was nothing but a big Texas lie) For what our two brave leaders have spent on the war in Iraq we could have had the biggest energy boom in American History : Not to mention that we are being invaded by Old Mexico ! Our Troops need to come home and protect us from this invasion . I was down in Arizona a few months ago and it was scary to see so many people coming in . My car was broke into only about a hundred feet from where I was at , I called the police and they never even showed up ! The People from Old Mexico just laughed at me as I was yelling at them to stop . I felt helpless because there was at least 10 of them . I felt like a foreigner in my own country .

  • I think Bush was unelectable... that is why he had to cheat. He is an embarrassment to our country.

  • Right on! Just think that this is the president that we could have had, and what a different 2005 we could be looking forward to.

    • I still hold the vision of Dennis Kucinich as OUR PRESIDENT. My truck still has his bumper sticker on it and will until way after he truely is sworn in as the President of the U.S. It CAN happen. Until then, I am trying to live what Dennis quoted in a recent interview. "We can make choices in our own lives as consumers. What we need is self government which starts with us. Its our obligation to try to find ways, in our own humble scope, to make a difference."

    • The commentator hit the nail on the head...it is regrettable the mainstream media chose not to report wisdom from Kucinich and other progressive leaders (who may or may not be within the framework of the Democratic Party). By accepting the limitations of the Democratic Party and their gutlessness in the face of the outright theft of the election, we doom our country to 4 more years of war, lies, and fiscal madness, which will result in untold human misery throughout the world. Am I mad? You bet I’m mad!

      P.S. My Kucinich sticker is still on my car, and I have one in the window of my house as well. I hold out hope for leadership who embraces ideas of peace, justice, and freedom. Until, I keep telling myself: This too shall pass.

  • Perhaps by 2008 we will be ready for Dennis Kucinich.

  • related stories

    US is Losing Iraq
    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...

    Bush and Blair are deluding themselves-Iraq is lost
    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...

  • Our Representatives are lining up in agreement... "Republican Rep. Coble agrees with Rep. Kucinich- Bring the troops home"

    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...

    Representative Jim McDermott suggests we start a campaign to deny any further supplemental budget requests that may, in fact, fund war crimes.

    "Investigate Alleged Violations of Law in Fallujah Attack"

    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...

    • The revolution starts now!

      "U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) today led 15 Members of Congress in sending a letter to President Bush requesting that U.S. soldiers come home."
      http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...

      "U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin has set her priorities for the legislative session beginning Jan. 25, and they include pinning down the Bush administration on when troops will come home from Iraq."
      http://www.madison.com/tct/news/sto...

      U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, a Lowell Democrat who returned from a fact-finding mission to Iraq last week, believes the president’s plan to crush the insurgency with bullets and bombs has fueled the resistance, making it larger and more deadly.
      http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,...

      Looks like the House of Representatives is starting to get it.

      Now if only the mainstream media would start doing their jobs. Doesn’t matter though, the truth is coming out with out without them. It is just a matter of who is going to sink with the ship.

      "TV News Viewership Declines, Internet Use Rises"
      http://www.commondreams.org/views05...

    • CHICAGO, IL - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today released the following statement on U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq:

      "The time has come for the United States to withdraw our troops from the battlefield of a war that should never have been waged. There was no real justification for sending our brave young men a women to fight in Iraq, and there is even less reason to keep them there now to die in ever increasing numbers.
      http://www.house.gov/schakowsky

      U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan discusses plan for leaving Iraq on CSPAN
      rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ira...

    • Rep. Lynn Woolsey introduced a resolution along with two dozen other House members that calls on the president to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

      "Some say that we have a responsibility to the people of Iraq to keep our troops there, that we must not abandon them. This misses the point," Woolsey said yesterday, in a speech delivered on the House floor. "Our very presence in Iraq is the cause of much of the violence. We have a moral responsibility to leave in order to stem the violence.

      http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,14...

      Senator Kennedy leads in the senate..."Kennedy calls for troop withdrawal, says military is fueling insurgents"

      http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/...

      Saying the American military’s continued presence in Iraq is fanning the flames of conflict, Kennedy said at least 12,000 U.S. troops should leave at once, and a complete withdrawal should be finished as early as possible in 2006.

      "The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution,"

    • Senator Dayton denounces Rice and US policy in Iraq

      "I don’t like to impugn anyone’s integrity, but I really don’t like being lied to repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally. It’s wrong. It’s undemocratic, it’s un-American, and it’s dangerous."

      I read in today’s Washington Post that the army is planning to keep its current troop strength in Iraq at 120,000 for at least two more years. I did not learn that information as a member of Congress. I did not learn it as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where I regularly attend public hearings, classified meetings, and top secret briefings. I did not learn it from the U.S. military command in Iraq, with whom I met in Baghdad last month. I read it in The Washington Post.

      http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...