Open thread for suggestions for Kerry's convention acceptance speech

[hansolsen]

I'll start -- one idea or category per post -- here goes:

Kerry on torture of detainees

John needs to decide whether or not to support "tough" treatment of detainees as part of his overall goal of not being painted as soft on defense. My hope is that he takes the view that torture and abuse are morally wrong, practically ineffective, and un-American. Here are some possible statements to use:

> My first action relative to prisoners in this conflict will be to order the guards to have the detainees put back on their clothes. There will be no naked detainees in a Kerry administration.

> My second action will be to set in motion full legal prosecution of every soldier and civilian responsible for this abuse, up to and including George Bush. When those prosecutions are brought to an end, I will go to every American military academy and render an apology to our troops, on behalf of all Americans, for the abuse American soldiers will endure for a hundred years resulting from this great disgrace.

> This prisoner abuse scandal is one of the low points in American history. We cannot sweep it under the rug, pretend it doesn't matter, and act as if accountability is merely a word. I will hold people accountable and ensure it doesn't happen again.

[hansolsen]

1. Kerry on the war in Iraq

Kerry on War in Iraq -- where we go from here

Reasonable people can disagree about whether of not this war is just, whether it should have been launched, and how it could have been managed better along the way. And it is easy for me, with 20/20 hindsight to say what I would have done differently. But I will not take that easy course tonight. I will tell you the values I hold that will guide my decisions in the middle east if I am elected:

1. First, I am a soldier. I will never stop being a soldier, and I will never send my fellow soldiers into combat in a war I believe we cannot win. I believe we can win this war, but not with George Bush's strategies.

> Therefore, I will keep troops in Iraq if I believe they are contributing to the security of a legitimate Iraqi government, and that government wants us there. If I conclude the standing government in Iraq is illegitimate, I will leave Iraq. And if a legitimate government demands that we leave, I will leave.

> I will not repeat the mistakes of Vietnam which I know so well. I will not ask our soldiers to fight a bloody war with one hand tied behind their backs. I will not leave American troops on the ground in Iraq, without a clear mission, and without the meaningful support of the Iraqi people. We cannot stand for the Iraqi people if they will not stand with us. That is a fool's errand and I will not use American troops to run a fool's errand.

2. Second, I value the truth. I will tell the American people the plain, unvarnished truth, and I will speak even when it is politically inconvenient to speak. Knowing this, it is not possible to discuss the war in Iraq, without discussing the fate of our ally, Israel. The war in Iraq is all about Israel; not exclusively, but inextricably.

> I am committed to the support and defense of a free and secure state on Israel, as so established by the United Nations in the mandate of 1949. I will do whatever it takes to ensure that mandate is enforced and the state of Israel continues to exist. In taking this action to support Israel, I will also ensure that the Palestinian people are treated with fairness and equity, as if they were my own family. I will see them treated as I would wish my own family to be treated. In fairness and equity we will find security and peace.

> I do not believe the war in Iraq is now making the world safer for either us or the state of Israel. That situation on the ground in Iraq must be radically changed for the better, and soon, or this course of action must be reconsidered. For our sake and for the sake of peace in the middle east. This will be my highest priority.

[2Design]

2. he is writing his own....long hand on looseleaf paper.....it will be his

own words......

[hansolsen]

5. Yes, but hopefully he is still taking input on what to say. N/T

[IndianaGreen]

3. "I shall go to Iraq!"

Eisenhower's "I Shall Go to Korea" speech guaranteed his election in 1952. Kerry can borrow the following part of Ike's famous speech:

Dwight D. Eisenhower's ''I Shall Go to Korea'' Speech, 1952

October 25, 1952


The first task of a new Administration will be to review and re-examine every course of action open to us with one goal in view: To bring the Korean war to an early and honorable end. This is my pledge to the American people.

For this task a wholly new Administration is necessary. The reason for this is simple. The old Administration cannot be expected to repair what it failed to prevent.

Where will a new Administration begin?

It will begin with its President taking a simple, firm resolution. The resolution will be: To forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean war-until that job is honorably done.

That job requires a personal trip to Korea.

I shall make that trip. Only in that way could I learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace.

I shall go to Korea.

http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1950s/Ike_Korea_52.html

[hansolsen]

6. Ike -- best Republican president since Lincoln.

[hansolsen]

4. Kerry on 9/11 Commission report -- what Kerry should really say

Much will be made of whether or not the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented, and much will be written about how to fix the problems. Here is what has not been said that I say to you tonight.

The best intelligence services in the world could not protect America from terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and even with all the improvements that anyone can contemplate, those intelligence services will still not be able to keep us safe tomorrow, either.

Yes, we can deter some attacks, we can make it difficult for the attackers, we can increase the cost of terrorism and blunt its swift proliferation. But every American needs to know this:

Our military cannot keep us safe. Homeland security cannot keep us safe. Wars of aggression on rouge states cannot keep us safe. And we will never be able to infiltrate more than a few of the hundreds or even thousands of terrorist cells that seek harm to America. We cannot hide our heads in the sand and believe these comforting little theories -- they are all wrong.

In the short run our greatest safety lies in numbers. We are a great nation of 300 million people. They can harm us but they cannot destroy America. Only we can do that.

Again, in the short run the greatest danger to America is from within -- the danger that we will voluntarily give up civil liberties and compromise our core values in the effort to defeat and punish this enemy. We must never let revenge be the guiding principle of American foreign policy, and we must tell the Osam bin Ladens of the world that 9/11 changed nothing -- nothing important.

In the long run, the only way to win this struggle is to address the fundamental root causes of terrorism, and that will require that we look to our own policies around the world which have not always been just or fair. As President, I promise you, the American people, and perhaps more importantly, I promise the people of the world this:

Under my leadership America will put fairness and equity at the top of our agenda, ahead of politics and plunder, ahead of commerce and ideology, and ahead of patriotism. Patriotism devoid of fundamental fairness and equity, is fascism, and I will not stand for that. I will stand for the America I read about in the civics books of my youth. You can count on it.

[randr]

7. He should point out that in the 60's we were

called "draft dodgers". Now we can turn the tables and call the GOP the "tax dodgers".