Ed Show: Kucinich - 'Bush Should Have Been Impeached; We Should Not Be Escalating in Afghanistan'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 04:48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1W4RDkGjfY   Posted on YouTube: December 01, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: December 02, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 2540

 
MSNBC The Ed Show w/ ED SCHULTZ - 1 December 2009

SCHULTZ: "Is there a chance that Bush and Cheney got it so wrong, that maybe the Obama plan moving forward could turn this around and get us a successful conclusion? What do you think?"

KUCINICH: "Well, I think that many of us know that President Bush and Dick Cheney took this country into a war in Iraq that we did not have to fight, kept this country in Afghanistan and prolonged a war that we did not have to continue, and frankly, with (Cheney) speaking out, he should be held accountable. Both he and the President should have been impeached. President Bush, that is, should have been impeached. And Mr. Cheney should still be held accountable for the lies that he told that took us into the war in Iraq.

Now with respect to Afghanistan, we should not be escalating, and it's an unfortunate thing that President Obama has made the decision to escalate. You can't be in and out at the same time. You may talk about an exit strategy, but the truth of the matter is that you first have to escalate and then you find out how long you're going to be there. And I think it is regrettable. We don't have the money to do this. We are weakening our ability to defend this country by doing it. And I think it's going to undermine the United States' role in the region and create even further instability."

SCHULTZ: "So, why do you think President Obama is making this move, and why now?"

KUNCINICH: "Well, you correctly pointed out that he committed himself to Afghanistan early on. But I also think that if he would have looked at the evidence, that is that al Qaeda had been routed, that any increase in occupation forces fuels a Taliban insurgency. Taliban are not jihadists. They're home-grown Afghanis who have, unfortunately, created a huge resistance that makes it apparent that the U.S. is not going to be in a position to be able to knock them out. The best that we can do is cut a deal and to get out. Unfortunately, we're escalating with the idea that somehow we're going to conquer the Taliban. The best we can do is fight them to a draw and it's going to be very costly, and it will cost us a lot of blood and treasure."

SCHULTZ: "Congressman, what about Pakistan? Pakistan is a big part of all of this. Don't we have to have a presence there?"

KUCINICH: "Actually, our presence in Afghanistan and the action, activity of the drones along the border creates instability in Pakistan. And so, we have a very dangerous moment here, where the United States is overextending itself.

And it's not only relating to Pakistan. You know, we're looking at military forces that are close to the Iranian border, and we're also looking at military forces in a country which is on the Chinese border. Instead of trying to work with these nations to create a solution in Afghanistan, we're creating instability that could put us into a wider war. Very dangerous to do that, particularly at a time when the U.S. economy is so deep."

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[mother earth]

1. Absolutely right! I'm sick of more of the same, we want this

awful war(s) to end NOW!

None of this makes sense given the state of affairs in this country, this will hasten our economic ruin and only the war profiteers are smiling. Everyone is ignoring the Pakistani/Indian issue and this is the heart of the matter. It's a lose-lose proposition until there's nothing left to lose, and then what?

[Libertas1776]

2. Silly Kucinich

you're just a troll. You don't have a handsome face. You're not tall and statuesque enough to be president. You don't come bearing "change" and "hope." :sarcasm:

The problem with Kucinich is he speaks the truth. He who speaks the truth gets marginalized. It's a damn shame that we don't appreciate the humble greatness of this man.

[LakeSamish706]

4. I gotta tell ya, I wish he were in the WH right now.... I hate this war escalation...

[earcandle]

7. Ahem... Me too! Here is one of my support links for Dennis for Prez. Do you like it? We could

use it again! Next time!

http://www.earcandleproductions.com/Kucinich_Now_2008.mov

We ought to start a "Why we are attracted to the ideas and principles of Dennis Kucinich" thread!

I'll monitor it! You have to train me though cause I am not familiar with the rules at that level.

[earcandle]

5. We are not marginalized by those who matter, and we are growing.

[irislake]

8. Great men are always humble.

[Dinger]

13. I Hope He Runs Again

I was wrong not to vote for him in the past. I like Dean too. Wes Clark is another one.

[LakeSamish706]

3. I would love to hear from the anti Kucinich group to tell me what Congressman...

Kucinich said to Ed in this video is wrong. He was right on as usual and has the balls to stand up there and say these things.

[RufusTFirefly]

16. Sorry, but they never go after Kucinich for what he SAYS

They go after him for what they say he IS, conveniently ignoring the substance of his remarks.

Call him a dwarf or an elf or whatever you want. I see him more as a diminutive David, fearlessly confronting a gigantic Corporate Media, Military Industrial Complex, Big Pharmaceutical Goliath. And we all know how that story ended.

[omega minimo]

6. Zackly what I said!!

[bluestateguy]

9. Uh huh

[Hissyspit]

10. Delete nt

[earcandle]

11. THe kind of rubble absurdity the right has to offer any kind of intelligent debate or reasoning.

episode of reasoning. 

They just can't bear direct answers that uncover lies and bear
light.

My husband told me Huckabee intentionally put a prisoner to
death because he
was becoming a well known buddhist in jail teaching the
inmates detachment and 
attachment and the orbits in between the paradoxes of all
things.... 

I am so tempted to put up our latest song, but I am not
sharing anymore songs here.

This is about to become released (6 weeks)... so the last four
songs will have to be
heard up at itunes .. but one of them is called
"something different".  It would work here.

[slipslidingaway]

12. knr nt

[pleah]

14. K&R

[Stables2010]

15. Obama just fucked up, nobody but idiots n neocons supports this war

The right will make the lefts opposition to the wars seem moot. It wont look good for the pres but I hope the congress denies the funding of this quagmire. Wishful thinking I know, probably a better chance of the repubs would support UHC for all Americans.

[bjobotts]

17. A nation of tribes on the verge of a civil war.We back one and the other fights us

[bjobotts]

18. Kucinich is the voice of reason here.This eternal war on terror has got to stop

[bjobotts]

19. We are occupiers.They have no Navy, or air force or pose a threat to our country

[bjobotts]

20. Do more good if you just dropped cash on them. $60,000 million for 2yrs=our costs minimum

[bjobotts]

21. Will the chant be: Hey, hey Barack Obama, you killed their sons now kill their mamas

[Amonester]

22. When a traitor (to say the least) like Karl Rove is ready to applaud

Obama, just the thought of it makes me sick.

[sattahipdeep]

24. Greenwald

I've written many times before why, on security grounds alone, I oppose escalation and even ongoing occupation. The greatest cause of Terrorism is our endless wars, invasions, bombings, occupations and other means of interfering in the Muslim world, and our escalation will only fuel the anti-American hatred and resentment that -- as even our own Government has recognized -- is the primary fuel of the threat we're supposedly trying to arrest. For that reason, Obama's escalation is, in my view, more likely to subvert rather than promote the security goals he cites to justify it.

But if Obama's approach -- reflective of the Republican "realists" to whom he seems to listen most -- slays the pervasive, preening "liberal hawk" fantasy that we invade and bomb other countries in order to help them, that will at least be an important value. With some extremely rare historical exceptions, governments start and wage wars in order to benefit themselves, not to "help" the people in the countries which are being invaded and bombed. We've proven so many times as to place it beyond dispute that we're more than willing to support and empower foreign leaders who do our bidding regardless of how they treat their own citizens. That didn't change when we had a swaggering, cowboy-hat-wearing, evangelical moralizer in the Oval Office, and it's not going to change just because he's been replaced by a charming, nice, eloquent, East-Coast-educated Democrat.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

[Lorien]

30. Palin too

Maybe there should be a bumper sticker: "I voted for change and all I got was more of this lousy war"!

[Echo In Light]

23. K&R

[SandWalker1984]

25. Those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword.

You'd think someone as educated as Obama would remember that.

[winyanstaz]

26. K & R....

And yet once again...Kucinich NAILS it....
Thank you sir for your great efforts on behalf of the American Citizens.

[Overseas]

27. That's what I was thinking-- Had we only impeached Bush & Cheeeney

Things would be so different now.

Had we only gotten my wild wish that our Democratic Majority went all FDR the moment they took over-- knowing full well that whatever they did would already be characterized as Socialist Commie anyway-- things could have been so different now.

We could have been doing what my favorite few lines of Obama's speech talked about-- rebuilding our own nation-- after it had been trampled and tarnished by the Bush Gang's coup d'etat for 8 years.

If there was ever an excuse for the Democrats to revive their power by dismantling the Republican Plutocracy, the crash of 2008, the torture of Abu Ghraib, and rampant war profiteering by the Bush Gang would have been it.

A sobering close up on all the grave crimes committed in our name by the Bush Gang could have been very helpful in moving us toward a new kind of global economy, cognizant of ecological limits, more aware of international human rights, ready to repudiate the old ways of supporting "free market" economics with brutal warfare.

Instead we've been treated to a series of very peculiar Bipartisan feints that weakened all the legislation we were counting on to revive our national economy, health security and international honor. It has been so very strange to see the party that sustained Bush Gang Rule being treated with such deference, even as they spat at our dear president time and time again.

I'm left feeling very naive for hoping that President Obama could have followed the Bush financial bailout with a Democratic workers' bailout-- a rapid jobs program that addressed the stacks of deferred domestic maintenance projects left behind by the Bush Oil Gang, and the green jobs to prepare us to need less warfare to dominate petroleum resources.

If any president had a mandate for dramatic positive changes, President Obama did.

But he's in an odd position because-- if any Congress had reason to impeach the executive branch, the 2001-2008 Congress did. He had to take charge of a government that impeached its last president for tawdry consensual sex but left the Bush Gang alone even after it let us be attacked by OBL, then refused to take OBL prisoner when offered the chance, then invaded one country chasing OBL and let him escape from there in order to go to war in a second country that had no connection to the attack on the USA, then tortured prisoners to try to retroactively produce statements to support their lies.

How would we feel, becoming the president of such a country?

I like to think I'd say, okay Dem Team, we've tried the Reagan way and look where it got us. Ruined our economy and national security. People need a bailout-- open up Medicare in 2010 to all who choose it. Our wars are too costly now that so much has been privatized, and create more enemies for us to perpetuate the war machine, and it is never seems to be a good time to withdraw, so we're going to do so now. We don't want any military action we deem necessary to be linked with the destructive war crimes of the past administration.

Instead, we still have the Old Torturer given time on our national airwaves and in print to comment about foreign policy. He should be holed up in an undisclosed location in fear of arrest at any moment.

Sigh...

[madrchsod]

28. wow! no hate`n on dennis replies and a lot of recommends

that has to be the first post like this in days in day`s

[RoccoR5955]

29. K&R Dennis is THE MAN!!! He truly works for WE THE PEOPLE...

and not them, the corporations.

*****Kucinich/Sanders 2012!*****