Hart on Iraq

by Jerome Armstrong, Mon Aug 29, 2005 at 01:19:20 PM EDT

In case you missed it (I did) from last week: The real defeatists today are not those protesting the war. The real defeatists are those in power and their silent supporters in the opposition party who are reduced to repeating "Stay the course".Gary Hart. He's got tough medicine for the Senators that voted in favor of invading Iraq. That should be simple enough for all Democrats to agree-- that staying the course is not an option.

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Agreed.
Iraq as implemented is a complete disaster.  Our best angle of attack as Democrats should be Rosemary Palmer's...do it right, or don't do it.

I disagree with a lot of the lefty blogosphere's approach to the issue, but you hit this nail on the head.  Staying the course is no option.

by TimRusso 2005-08-29 02:09PM | 0 recs
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I Second That
DRAFT GARY HART FOR PRESIDENT 2008!
by pbcliberaldem 2005-08-29 03:43PM | 0 recs
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Gary Hart on Iraq
Gary Hart was one of my first pollitcal heroes.  His book on the McGovern campaign, Right From the Start, should be required reading for all progressives.  It was McGovern, not right wing activists, who showed how a movement could be funded through direct mail.  The right wing stole his idea and funded their movement from direct mail for years.  And Hart's concluding paragraphs of that book where he discusses the Democrat's need to once again refashion itself as the party of working people is still true today.  

While Hart was a Senator, he specialized in defense matters.  He was, and still is, an original and insightful analyst on defense matters.  He is probably the country's foremost expert on homeland security, having co-chaired a commission on that subject with former Senator Warren Rudman.  If the Bush Administration had implemented some of the Rudman-Hart Commission's recommendations we may very well have avoided 9-11.

Like Jerome, I recommend this article to everyone.

by Andy Katz 2005-08-29 04:10PM | 0 recs
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Right on!
Who Will Say No More?:

"Waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool said to push on," warned an anti-Vietnam war song those many years ago. The McGovern presidential campaign, in those days, which I know something about, is widely viewed as a cause for the decline of the Democratic Party, a gateway through which a new conservative era entered.

Like the cat that jumped on a hot stove and thereafter wouldn't jump on any stove, hot or cold, today's Democratic leaders didn't want to make that mistake again. Many supported the Iraq war resolution and -- as the Big Muddy is rising yet again -- now find themselves tongue-tied or trying to trump a war president by calling for deployment of more troops. Thus does good money follow bad and bad politics get even worse.

But what will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on? My generation of Democrats jumped on the hot stove of Vietnam and now, with its members in positions of responsibility, it is afraid of jumping on any political stove. In their leaders, the American people look for strength, determination and self-confidence, but they also look for courage, wisdom, judgment and, in times of moral crisis, the willingness to say: "I was wrong."

To stay silent during such a crisis, and particularly to harbor the thought that the administration's misfortune is the Democrats' fortune, is cowardly. In 2008 I want a leader who is willing now to say: "I made a mistake, and for my mistake I am going to Iraq and accompanying the next planeload of flag-draped coffins back to Dover Air Force Base. And I am going to ask forgiveness for my mistake from every parent who will talk to me."

Further, this leader should say: "I am now going to give a series of speeches across the country documenting how the administration did not tell the American people the truth, why this war is making our country more vulnerable and less secure, how we can drive a wedge between Iraqi insurgents and outside jihadists and leave Iraq for the Iraqis to govern, how we can repair the damage done to our military, what we and our allies can do to dry up the jihadists' swamp, and what dramatic steps we must take to become energy-secure and prevent Gulf Wars III, IV and so on."

by Gary Boatwright 2005-08-29 07:08PM | 0 recs
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Hart on Democratic Policy
From a NYT article in 2002:

For whole article: http://www.garyhartnews.com/hart/writings/columns/columns/columns_10_03_2002.php

Note to Democrats: Get a Defense Policy

By GARY HART

DENVER -- Once again the Democratic Party finds itself on the defensive on defense. Congressional Democrats are responding to a Republican president's initiative, this time in Iraq. And we will continue to be on the defensive until we produce a cohesive foreign policy that spells out our plans for national security and homeland security and describes the circumstances under which American force can be used abroad.

by rich kolker 2005-08-30 06:45AM | 0 recs

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