Rep. Kucinich: George Bush Should Have Been Impeached--Warns Against Troop Escalation
Dennis Kucinich gives Ed Schultz some straight talk on what anyone should think of Dick Cheney having the nerve to criticize the Obama administration's foreign policy decisions and on whether we should be escalating our presence in Afghanistan.
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 we could get 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 into Afghanistan and prolonged a war that we did not have to continue and frankly with the Vice President 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 war in Iraq. Now with respect to Afghanistan, we should not be escalating. It’s an unfortunate thing that President Obama has made a decision to escalate. You can’t be in and out at the same time. He may talk about an exit strategy but the truth of the matter is, you first have to escalate and then you find out how long you’re going to be there and I think it’s 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.
As Rep. Kucinich also noted, it is also up to the Congress to decide whether to fund our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who are opposed to increasing troop levels have an obligation to take a stand.
It would be a better world if Dennis was our president. He is what a president should be. If America would get behind this man maybe Obama would listen. Isn't it about time?
Any "liberal" who says Kucinich is unelectable is a total coward with no convictions. The only reason Kucinich is unelectable is because of liberal cowards who would rather have a Kerry/Obama/Clinton/Edwards/Dodd centrist president.
Please, next time will all of the people who voted for Obama or Hillary or any of the other corporate concubines instead vote for the best candidate, not the best mascot. And make sure to donate to Kucinich's campaign. We need to support the few respectable reps we have.
I wish liberals had half the conviction of the teabaggers and Ron Paul supporters.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
... that Kucinich, in the big scheme of things, would be considered a moderate liberal in any other democracy.
That is how things have shifted to the right in this place, scary.
"Any "liberal" who says Kucinich is unelectable is a total coward with no convictions."
I'm sorry but he just isn't electable nor is Ron Paul. I guess you can pretend McCain didn't get many millions of votes or that the country as a whole has elected RW kooks but never a LW kook. Pretend all you like - reality check says naw, not in this country, not in any event.
I am no coward and I have prior convictions so you're not completely correct in either case.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
"I wish liberals had half the conviction of the teabaggers and Ron Paul supporters."
I did not vote for right-of-center GOP operative Obama last November, I proudly voted for Kucinich.
I know he has flaws, but he is by far the most truthful and respectable congressperson I know of.
I should have said "more liberals". I know many on here knew from the primaries that Obama was to the center-right of the "normal" political spectrum (not our MSM political spectrum) and voted for Kucinich or independents like McKinney.
I guess all those people who though "Change" was more than a slogan also believe Lucky Charms are healthy because the box tells them they are.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
tyree knew and "we" drove him away. :/
far left loon >.<
by conservative interest groups. They are full of sh!t not conviction. Ron Paul's are crazy. Kudnich wasn't nominated because Big Buisness & Co. stopped him, no because liberal supporters bailed.
I agree wholeheartedly. I also like Grayson and Sanders but Dennis is still my favorite.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
You are 100% correct. Dennis Kucinich was the absolute best candidate for the presidency of the United States. I supported his cancidacy and contributed to that candidacy.
The problem is that the establishment-military industrial complex-saw him as a threat and did everything in their power to eliminate that threat. Job well done by them. At the same time they were busy assuring that Bush and Cheney, etal, would not be prosecuted for their war crimes. You will recall that Mr. K called them out on their disasterous folley to invade Iraq.
I don't know where to go from here. We elected a president that seems to enjoy backsliding on his campaign promises and don't give a living shit if your son or daughter dies in order to increase the profits of the military industrial complex. I'm sorry, but that is the truth.
Now, come get me.
major problems with this idea.
First, hair. Kerry/Obama/Clinton/Edwards/Dodd all have great heads of hair. Americans have considered fabulous hair one of the most important qualities in a President, at least since Reagan.
Second, height. Kerry/Obama/Clinton/Edwards/Dodd are all pretty tall, or at least not a bit on the short side. Again, this is an important criterion in choosing major political candidates.
Third, looks. Kerry/Obama/Clinton/Edwards/Dodd are all good-looking guys or at least have big white teeth. Good bone structure or at least big white teeth are key determinants in the viability of a major political candidate.
I'm afraid unless Kucinich adds a at least 3 inches in height, starts spending $2-400 a haircut, and invests $25-50,000 in full dental caps and "face work," and/or gets tanned and buff, he's never going to make the big time.
And of course I'm being dead serious.
french. (i actually knew-worked with-someone who had this as part of her list to not vote for him. man i miss working with my kooky, right-wing, hyper-religious, bigoted, texas based company--unemployment sucks even if it means not having to deal with the squares)
besides, kucinich is friends with shirley maclaine and saw a ufo (which got bent all hell out of proportion along the lines of the "dean scream"). these are two major red flags of coo-coo-dom for those saner-than-thou americans waiting for an avatar to descend from the sky after the great rapture
He is a kook from left field!!! He needs to take that peace mongoring business somewhere and leave us Liberals alone!!!
Impeachment would have meant that we don't get the House and Senate back and escalating the war in Afghanistan means ending it, don't you know that? Where do you think you are living in? Some democratic country?
"escalating the war in Afghanistan means ending it"
Do you work for the pentagon?
Here is my reply to you war mongering ideas :
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com...
Pepe Escobar TRNN
President Obama's widely expected surge in Afghanistan is the "gift" US taxpayers received right in the middle of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression. The Pentagon for its part got (more or less) what it wanted - for now. As much as Obama stretched himself to stress this was not a new Vietnam, he trapped himself by conflating al-Qaeda with the Taliban and rehashing the same "war on terror" rationale - all clad in the glorious robes of a "noble struggle for freedom".
Pepe Escobar argues the most significant point about Obama's West Point address is what he omitted. He simply ignored the current, high-stakes New Great Game in Eurasia, on which the Pentagon is focused like a laser, and of which Afghanistan is just a peon.
Sorry i am not with OBama in this one an also i bet my Chinesse Cell Phone against your point.
of sarcasm...
.
Nope, not partisan to be so concerned with POWER POLITICS as to suggest that it is the "CONTROL" of either chamber that was you impetus to NOT support the Rule of Law, I guess.
Nope, of course that's not being partisan when you think of Party Power over Principle, is it?
You make the G(no)P the shining example of what you want the Democrats to be.
I'll wait for your Party Spin as to why Obama needs a second term to "FINISH" his 2011 goal.
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
So far, that getting the house and the senate is not doing much when filled with cowardly well-paid chumps is it now. They cannot even get as healthcare bill with a public option pasted, so much for winning the house and the senate and that supper majority. Bush and Cheney need to pay for their lawlessness and lies, I do not get a pass when the cop stops me for speeding, I guess I need to tell him that is looking into the past and we should look forward, yep that will work out for sure. Dennis and Sherrod Brown make me proud to be from Ohio, Boehner and mean Jean Schmidt not so much!
maybe if we didn't want comfort and security at any cost we would all be better off.
more secure perhaps?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
. .
we pay for Cheney's black ops whether they are 'secret' or not. cheney's black ops is not the way to go.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
....then reality sets in.
...the reality as indicated by the MSM, which is to say; a lie. The corporate owned media will never let a common sense lefty be president because it will negatively affect their bottom line.
.
Tammy Wynette would have cried...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfDZ7SBdYQQ
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
they should be tried for war crimes!
Not by your chenny chen chen.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...hair on your Cheny chen chen.
Some people still care.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
...
But Nancy was worried about clouding her agenda. Looking forward and not back....
Where do things like impeachment and single payer health care go when they're taken off the table?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
;)
On to the jacuzzi bed?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
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ASK JOHN CONYERS...
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
needs to get in Pelosi's face and give her a good talking to.
For a minute there I thought he was concerned about troop erections.
Don't send your wife to the front, Dennis.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Send viagra and me to the front then.
I'll take care of all those erections for America!
So please don't tell!
should have gave that speech in front of private contractors.
there's more of them then actual soliders.
and that is just flat out wrong.
during their orientations.
Sen Bernie Sanders asks [I paraphrase]: "If the outcome in Afghanistan and Pakistan is so important to the safety of the world, why is the US doing all the heavy lifting?"
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Afghanistan and Obama's Speech; Says Obama Admin are "Deficit Hawks"
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
it seems India would have a great interest in a partnership with the u.s. or vice versa.
... but it's the wrong kind of partnership. We're giving them nuclear technology.
.
.
.
.. but I still haven't gotten mine
:(
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
You didn't? It seemed like such a deal at the time. Then everyone sobered up and the deal looked kind of lame.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Russia is allowing use of its air space for supplying US and NATO in Afghanistan, and also providing technical assistance and parts for the Soviet military vehicles still in use by the Afghan military and police.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
non-strategic sh*tholes have been all the rage for the "safety of the world" during the past few decades.
you're an oil man whose tap is running dry.
I think people are missing the political jujitsu.
If Obama had said we need to send XXX number more troops to execute an orderly withdrawl starting in 18 months because we have to finish drawing down the Iraq troops. The speech would have been called a surrender by the RWNJ's.
Obama has the cons (for the most part) agreeing with him and he has McCrystal by the short hairs. If McCrystal doesn't produce in 18 months Obama could fire him.
I am anti-war and against all military actions.
I think Obama has also smoked out the BS cons and demo-cons deficit whines - they don't care but they look ridiculous to the average person whining about the cost of anything then WOO HOOing more military costs without so much as a bark or pay-go.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
"Surge, baby, surge" is the same asshat nonsense we had in Iraq. We're STILL there.
"Village by village" is the same asshat nonsense as 'clear, hold, and build'. It didn't work in Iraq.
"The Afghani people need to take responsibility ..." yeah, you guessed it, it's the same asshat pitch George W. Bush kept driving around.
Obama has put some candy sprinkles on the Bush Administration shit pile. It's still a shit pile, and I ain't buying it.
Edited to add:
Beyond that, how's this surge nonsense going to make a difference? Are we to believe the Mudjhaddeen beat the USSR because they didn't have enough men or military might or political will?
You don't have to buy anything, we have something to celebrate - and exit plan - a rough date - a timeframe. Not to mention an expression most people missed - "troop levels will max out in 18 months" - that means it is over. Done - Kaput. It'll take 24 months but something is planned for the first time in eight years.
If that is just candy sprinkles - I'll take em!
You'd never get that much out of McCain or Bush so . .
:)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
We did get that little song out of McCain about bombing Iran. That was catchy and frightening all at the same time. Bush so much as said he didn't give a fu*k about Osama as he punted both wars to the "next President"
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
You're sending in more troops to what? Stabilize things? Make it safe for us to draw down?
And at least I could trust McCain and Bush to be corrupt warmongers.
Could we just give it a chance and see if it just might work before we freak out. If we freak out for the next 18 months and then this thing smoothes out, we will have wasted a lot of time being angry.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
... of a Friedman Unit now tripled?
This could be a long war :(
Corruption favors the wealthy.
This has already been a long war, solely due to the Conservative mass murderers Bush and Cheney, et al.
who voted to approve every war allocation, every increase in funding and troops, every single war-like act since 2002...
... the stack of things with which I am upset about regarding Obama keeps getting higher.
He's not living up to his billing at all.
And it galls me that the lying bastards who have brought us to the point of even having to wonder whether this plan will work or not are just having a grand old time, when they should both be in jail for war crimes.
I share a lot of your despair about Obama's broken promises and/or failed expectations.
But Obama never promised or implied he'd get the US out of Afghanistan. In fact his campaign promise was to "finish the job" that Bush and Cheney left unfinished.
I share a lot of skepticisn about what "finishing the job" means - but it WAS a campaign promise.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
either...
I am starting to come to the conclusion that the Obama campaign repertoire was vague in a deliberate fashion, not as stress-induced omissions.
on the fact that you would not say "let's give it a chance and see if it works" if a Republican was proposing the same plan.
it's more likely that McCrystal will ask for 30K more troops in a year's time forcing Obama to double-down.
So because you worry about what hasn't happened in the future?
Watch, Obama isn't a fool. If McCrystal doesn't deliver he will be fired before Obama would ever ask for more troops.
He said the number would be maxed out in 18 months.
That is like tomorrow in political talk - also in military talk.
I'll give Obama 18 months more to start the draw down or have a darn good explanation why. In spite of what they say on the radio this isn't Obama war - not yet.
It is a mess he got from Bush and there is no way it would be cleaned up in the first year of the Obama WH.
I think all the condemnation of Obama is just hyperbole. People are frustrated and tired of the BS military actions taken by Bush Cheney.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
No, the condemnation (at least from this corner) is because we're still dicking around with thinking this is winnable.
30K troops and a date ain't gonna fix the abysmal stupidity of letting the Taliban keep the ball and run all over the gorram place with it.
We don't control the battlefield and we don't have the initiative. We STILL don't have a strategy. (Surge, and we'll um uh bring 'em home by 2011 .... yeah, right. This'll be over in weeks, not months.)
And if they cannot read, get it on tape. NO ONE WINs in Afghanistan. We will not become the first in history to do so. It will not happen. I do not care if GWB or Obama is president; waters are not going to part. After 8 years, is not that about enough to get the message? Go talk to the Russians, they thought they had a win in their column too, but also it was not to come, they were beat by people on horseback.
Exactly! Where are the republicans and tea baggers who are so concerned about the deficit and their children's future? I haven't heard a word from them today regarding the cost of this troop increase. Guess they have their priorities when it comes to war as opposed to health care for Americans and trivial stuff like that.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Helping the sick or poor is just weak - waging war well that is very manly and John Wayne like.
So.
I guess their Jesus loses in a fight with the Duke.
(Jesus might lose to Chuck Norris too)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Yes, we are "protecting our freedoms". Of course I don't know which country wants our freedom to die without good health care or to starve on the street due to lack of food, but I guess someone does. Seems to me that after 9-11 bush saw fit to jettison a whole bunch of perfectly good freedoms.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
... Chuck Norris had been the Christ, the Shroud of Turin could kick your ass.
Plus it would be uglier than sin. I don't think we want to encourage ass kicking by shroud's on this site.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
... we wouldn't have to worry about priests from the Church of Norris molesting little boys.
... or he may wave his arms around moving some air in their general direction. Threatening!
I never understood why a semi-retarded Oakie with a weird case of back hair and who got his ass kicked by Bruce Lee in the worst way... how such a douche became the icon of all-American virility.
LOL
"...we're looking at forces which are in a country with is on the Chinese border..."
Did he really suggest that South Korea borders on China?
He was technically right (Afghanistan borders on China), but wrong if he meant South Korea (which is more likely).
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com...
this is an opinion video by pepe escobar.
recall:
news reports that the usa had plans made mid-july to invade afghanistan around mid-october. so even though bush and his people were asleep at the wheel leading up to 9-11, there was something on the sidelines, it just seems they were not in any hurry after the uss cole and numerous presidential daily briefs.
>>Obama insists AfPak is a, I quote, “war of necessity” – because of 9/11. Wrong. The Bush administration had planned to attack Afghanistan even BEFORE 9/11. See it here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366...
here
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4587368/
and here
http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/CH30Df01.htmll<<
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Thank you for pointing this out. The occupations are NOT wars...
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
*
What kind of a fucking question is that, anyway? What the fuck is a "successful conclusion, Eddie, you obese asswipe? Ed Schultz is a social-climbing, inauthentic, lumbering, stupid, babbling putz.
...ever dream of doing. Everyday Schultz fights for Health Care Reform(single payer), small businesses(he promotes random small businesses daily on his radio show), unions(union heads love Ed), he's presently pushing hard a "Buy American" agenda, the poor and middle classes, etc. And I didn't mention how Ed regularly bitchslaps the ignorant Conservatives who dare wander to his radio show with dumbass right wing talking points.
Get your damned priorities straight. Ed Schultz isn't your enemy.
if only you were smart enough to see it...
Maybe YOU can tell me, then: waht's a 'successful conclusion' in Afghanistan?
Chuy!
"we don’t have the money to do this. We are weakening our ability to defend this country by doing it." AND it's an illegal invasion of a sovereign state in order to defend US economic interests. That is an international war crime. The main issue is one of ethics not power politics, not financial costs and not -- it hurts to type this -- "growing democracy". So, "Do the right thing."
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
that it was either Dean or Kucinich sitting in Obama's chair. I also wish that impeachment wasn't thrown off the table when Bush was digging US into this hole.
NOBODY 2012
Denis once again shows why he is too intelligent and supportive of this country to be President.
I would rather have my feet gnawed off by rats than have KKKarl applaud any action I ever did. BTW, KKKarl didn't applaud the President, he slammed him for doing exactly what he wanted him to do.
would be the president today if it weren't for our corporate handlers of our congress.
Mr. Kucinich along with Mr. Grayson and a few others are the only people on earth-or at least in a politically advantageous position to tel the exact truth about the shit that is going down. These are the people that need to be representing America, not the Harry Reids, John Boehners or even the Obamas.
I am so acared for our country right now. There is not a prevelant voice of reason anywhere to be found in our political process.
It is time to stop this myth that the U.S. is a super dominant power that can do anything that the military industrial complex wants us to do. That is total bull-shit.
I am so pissed at our "president" and our congress that I cannot express myself in a reasonably sane manner. There is no reason to escalate the "war" in Afghanistan. As KKKarl Rove will tell you, the Taliban were defeated in Afghanistan within 30 days of our intervention into that country. There are fewer than 100 Taliban, by the governments assesment, in Afghanistan and binLadin is NOT among them. So, why does it take in excess of 100,000 troops to do our job in that country, whatever the hell our job is supposed to be.
There are going to be more American deaths and Afghan deaths on an exponentially increasing resistance to the American occupation of Afghanistan. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
This madness must stop. The congress must cut funding for this folly of Obama and start the withdraw of troops from the Middle e
East immediately. There is no strategy in Afghanistan. There is no end point in Afghanistan. There will be no flag waving triumph of our "enemy" by destroying Iraq AND Afghanistan.
This shit simply has to stop. By any means
Kucinich , one of a very few honest , sensible and " clean " people in DC . It's probably too late but I'd like to see him and Sanders start a new party , an alternative to Repug and Repug lite . What a cesspool this country had become . Seriously , I am afraid that the future is not going to be pretty .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
.
It's funny to listen to my Democrat friends complain about the rocky road we were traveling...
... I keep asking them if they want me to let them know what's out the windshield, but they keep insisting that this new smooth ride is fine.
I want to tell them that the bumpy road that is well over, is because that smooth ride they feel is the free fall dive off the cliff...
... But they're too focused on texting on their cell phones while listening to their I-pods.
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
kucinich has been on the right side of everything for years.
he didn't vote for these wars.
he wants single payer healthcare
he wants to indict contractors for war profiteering.
he wants to indict wall street.
etc....
give kucinich some cabinet power.
also, put in elizabeth warren and eliot spitzer.
Who was it again who led the House of Representatives and said, "Impeachment is off the table"?
Geeee ya think? Lets see.....
Waged war of aggression - the worst war crime of them all
Sanctioned torture
Illegal detentions
Illegal surveillance
Illegal domestic propaganda
etc.
Geeee MAYBE he should have been impeached. And put into prison for life!!!!!
Carefully reread the transcript. Dennis the K does not answer the question he was asked. He responds in a jumble of incoherent rambling run on sentences with unconnected and contradictory phrases. It is why he never topped single digits in support.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
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