John Kerry's military mission

[CatWoman]

Editor's note: Following are prepared remarks for a speech delivered by Sen. John Kerry at George Washington University on March 17.

March 17, 2004 | One year ago this week, American soldiers raced across the desert to Baghdad. Ten months ago, George Bush stood on an aircraft carrier and proclaimed "mission accomplished."

But today we know that the mission is not finished, hostilities have not ended, and our men and women in uniform fight on almost alone with the target squarely on their backs. Every day, they face danger and death from suicide bombers, roadside bombers, and now, ironically, from the very Iraqi police they are training.


We are still bogged down in Iraq -- and the administration stubbornly holds to failed policies that drive potential allies away. What we have seen is a steady loss of lives and mounting costs in dollars, with no end in sight.

We were misled about weapons of mass destruction. We are misled now when the costs of Iraq are not even counted in the President's budget. But having gone to war, we have a responsibility to keep and a national interest to achieve in a stable and peaceful Iraq. To leave too soon would leave behind a failed state that inevitably would become a haven for terrorists and a threat to our future, a problem for the Middle East, and a dangerous setback in the war against terror.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/03/17/kerry_military/index.html

[mike_c]

1. Lyndon Baines Kerry....

History repeats itself.

You know, having been one of the folks screaming bloody murder at the idiocy of the IWR over a year ago, and the moral bankruptcy of the actual invasion and occupation, it's especially frustrating to see how infrequently history's lessons are learned.