Kerry speaking about Iraq now n/t

[Inuca]

[wisteria]

1. Oh my. He was just so wonderful.

I love it when he says he has had enough! You want a debate, come on Mr.Chaney, I'll debate you on this.

[karynnj]

2. Did he say he would debate Cheney?

That would be cool. Mr Cheney has faced even less direct contradiction of his lies than Bush. Remember Bush's obvious annoyance in the first debate. I assume he was surprised to find that when he spoke of the need to go into Iraq was because they hit here, that unlike his vetted audience, the Senator would call him on his lie.

I missed this because I was posting on a dumb thread! I hope it's replayed or put on Johnkerry.com

[Democrafty]

3. I think he's made this offer about a hundred times.

Sadly, I just don't see Darth taking him up on the offer. I missed the first part of this, so I hope it's on jk.com.

(Also, does anyone recognize that tie? It looks like a new one...)

[wisteria]

8. Oh, shoot, I missed looking at the tie. n/t

[Noisy Democrat]

4. Most of it is here

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kvh/4%2012%2007%20Apr%2012.rm

Do right-click Save As. Sorry I missed the first 2 minutes, and at the end is a few minutes of the next speaker; I got most of it, though, including some fiery stuff.

[karynnj]

5. Thank you soo much

Updated to say I watched it and it was incredible!

[wisteria]

9. Thanks! n/t

[ginnyinWI]

14. thanks--I would have missed it. n/t

[rox63]

16. Thank you so much!

I often miss these things because I'm at work when they occur. Thanks for the chance to hear me some p***ed-off Kerry. :)

[MBS]

17. Thanks SO much, ND

this speech is a stunner. (Or as the esteemed speaker woud say, "Stunning"). Especially since Senate speeches seem never to be archived on CSPAN or elsewhere.You've done us a great service!

FWIW, on Macs (if you have RealPlayer), the video just downloads automatically. It was super-simple

[MBS]

18. can you make this available to/at johnkerry.com?

Transcipt is up there. Mention of how powerful the speech is. . Cadmium was pining there for audio. .M loutre or dwahzon, are you reading this? : )

[Noisy Democrat]

19. I don't think

the official site would want to officially post a vid clip that's missing a bit, *plus* CSPAN is known to get very sticky about copyright violation -- they made Crooks and Liars take stuff down. I posted the URL as a comment, though, and the mods there can decide whether it's OK to approve a comment that has a URL for the clip in it. I seriously doubt that *that* will bring down the wrath of CSPAN on anyone's head. Meanwhile, Cadmium does hang out here, too, so may've already seen it...

[cadmium]

23. Thank you. This speech was important. The only thing it lacks

is that it has been drown out by Imus and that pesky Anna Nicole Smith

[ginnyinWI]

6. a "war czar" indeed.

Just when you think they have come up with all the stupid ideas already. We already have a Commander in Chief and a Sec. of Defense--and the council of all the top military brass. Now we are supposed to need another layer of authority? Looks to me like another way for * to shirk some responsibility. Another way for him to say "I broke it now you fix it."

If * would just listen, like JK says, to the military commanders and actually make some good decisions (which I know is asking too much), we'd be able to resolve this thing more quickly.

[blm]

7. Did Kerry also draw attention to that war czar bizness?

.

[ginnyinWI]

13. at the beginning of the clip in this thread

He talks about how none of the generals want the job. The situation is so bad and * so stubborn that they can't find anybody to take the job, he says.

[TayTay]

10. Anybody read Robert Fisk this week?

He is one of the most respected writers in the Middle East. He has deep knowledge of the area and has been reporting on the problems and people there since at least 1982.

Fisk wrote yesterday in an article for his British newspaper, The Independent, that the American military has drawn up a plan to "gate" in Baghdad and wall off sections of the city, so as to separate the various insurgencies from each other. Fisk says this plan, the brain child of Commanding General David Patreaus, is akin to other plans that occupying forces have used in an effort to isolate parts of an insurgency and starve off insurgent elements. Fisk also notes that this strategy almost never works and comes with great risk. An unnamed military strategist listed the downside of this plan and the likely response of the insurgents:

FM 3-24 is harsh in its analysis of what counter-insurgency forces must do to eliminate violence in Iraq. "With good intelligence," it says, "counter-insurgents are like surgeons cutting out cancerous tissue while keeping other vital organs intact." But another former senior US officer has produced his own pessimistic conclusions about the "gated" neighbourhood project.

"Once the additional troops are in place the insurrectionists will cut the lines of communication from Kuwait to the greatest extent they are able," he told The Independent. "They will do the same inside Baghdad, forcing more use of helicopters. The helicopters will be vulnerable coming into the patrol bases, and the enemy will destroy as many as they can. The second part of their plan will be to attempt to destroy one of the patrol bases. They will begin that process by utilising their people inside the 'gated communities' to help them enter. They will choose bases where the Iraqi troops either will not fight or will actually support them.

"The American reaction will be to use massive firepower, which will destroy the neighbourhood that is being 'protected'."

The ex-officer's fears for American helicopter crews were re-emphasised yesterday when a military Apache was shot down over central Baghdad.

The American's son is an officer currently serving in Baghdad. "The only chance the American military has to withdraw with any kind of tactical authority in the future is to take substantial casualties as a token of their respect for the situation created by the invasion," he said.

"The effort to create some order out of the chaos and the willingness to take casualties to do so will leave some residual respect for the Americans as they leave."


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2439530.ece

There is another word for this: endgame. And yes, occupying forces have lost whole armies to bad strategies. Ask the Germans or the French who invaded Russia in past centuries. Whole armies, gone, destoyed to insurgents battling for their homes.

Sen Kerry is completely right in stating that we need to withdraw.

[Inuca]

11. For the first time...

I kept hoping that that it will be a short speech! I should not have listened, I should have been on my way to work. I managed to make it, not more than one or two minutes late, but I broke the speed record :-). Anyway, question: did anybody find it unusual how open and specific he was in his criticism of McCain's speech yesterday? He did not mince words, especially in the 2nd part, I do not remember exactly what he said (I will have to have another look, without having to watch the clock), but I remember thinking WOW, that's VERY far from "my esteemed friend" and the like.

[YvonneCa]

12. He also mentioned...

...by name...Cheney, and Bush, not 'this administration'. I don't think he's done that before...at least not with Cheney. And he offered to debate him. :)

[ginnyinWI]

15. righteous anger--he speaks for me! n/t

[TayTay]

20. The beginning of the speech

Sen. Kerry says that he was at the funeral at Arlington National Cemetary on Wed, April 11th, for:

560 03/29/07 Wilson, Christopher M.
Specialist 24 years old
US U.S. Army 1st BN, 32nd Infantry Reg, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division
Hostile - hostile fire - bomb
Korengal Outpost Afghanistan
(Home) Bangor Maine (Chicopee, Mass)

This is how the papers remembered this young soldier:

Soldier killed in Afghanistan feared never seeing daughter again
Date: April 04, 2007

BANGOR, Maine_A soldier who left behind a young daughter in Maine said his greatest fear was “not coming home to his little girl.”

Army Spc. Christopher Wilson, 24, made the remark on the social networking Web site MySpace.com before being killed last week by a rocket-propelled grenade while deployed with the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan.

On the Web, Wilson expressed his love for his 4-year-old daughter, Boston sports teams and his “buddies back home.” He said his goal for 2007 was to “stay alive.”

Army records identified Wilson as being from Bangor, but most of his family ties are in Chicopee, Mass. His daughter, Jayden, is believed to be his only family member living in Maine, said Maj. Michael Backus, director of public affairs of the Maine National Guard.

While it appears Wilson spent most of his youth in Massachusetts, he identified Bangor as his hometown at the time of his Army enlistment in September 2002.

[karynnj]

21. Reading these articles brings home the reality

This really is what his speech is all about - these guys need a better policy.

[TayTay]

22. Absolutely

That has always been the heart and soul of these speeches.

The former top operating officer at the Pentagon, a Marine Lieutenant General, said "the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions--or bury the results."

John Kerry, Apr. 22, 2006