Kerry speech on Senate floor re: Rumsfeld

[welshTerrier2]

all quotes are "my best recording" ... you want precision, go find a transcript

"if bush hadn't outsourced the job to Afghan mercenaries we could have surrounded Tora Bora"

"more terrorists today want to kill Americans than on September 11 ... is that a policy that is working?"

"we're not talking about leaving Iraq before they can provide their own security" (Note: Mr. Kerry has returned to CONDITIONAL withdrawal)

"if there's no military solution, what is the solution?"

"the only way to resolve Iraq is through diplomacy and political effort"

"there's a total absence of the kind of effort that can help to resolve Iraq"

"if they are 85% trained, why aren't we able to withdraw a few troops?"

"each month keeps on being the worst month than the month before"

"our plan is that we have to set a date by which the Iraqis will assume responsibility ... there is nothing precipitous about that"

"we allow the president to keep special forces there"

"we allow the president to keep sufficient forces there to protect American facilities (Note: does this include corporate-owned oil fields and corporate-owned oil pipelines?)"

"Rumsfeld's speech smeared those who dissent and accused them of moral confusion"

"it's immoral to use 9/11 as a political pawn"

"they were not killed by Saddam but by Osama Bin Laden"

"we have a better strategy for winning"

"Karl Rove has acknowledged that to win, republicans need to exploit security"

"in the place of accountability, we have vicious partisan attacks"

"we've watched Iraq sliding further and further into a bloody civil war"

"i've heard republicans privately acknowledge their concerns about this secretary and about this policy"

"on issue after issue Secretary Rumsfeld made the wrong decision"

"wrong when he could have followed reconstruction plan but didn't"

"wrong when he could have guarded the ammo dumps"

"when he could have imposed immediate order in Baghdad, he didn't"

Kerry then provided a long list of Rumsfeld's failures ...

"Mr. Rumsfeld was wrong again and again and again and the troops had to pay for that ... the Americans taxpayers had to pay and many troops paid with their lives"

"his stubbornness is our weakness"

"the current course is not leading to that success"