[2264] in peace2
Peace supporter aspiring to be President.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laura M. Rodriguez)
Sun Feb 23 08:17:30 2003
From: "Laura M. Rodriguez" <laurita@MIT.EDU>
To: <peace-announce@mit.edu>
Cc: <laurita@mit.edu>
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 08:16:52 -0500
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Some of you already know that Congress's greatest anti-war, civil rights
supporter is planning to run for President. Last Friday Congressman
Kucinich was in CNN's Crossfire and below is the transcript of the
segment pertaining to the Iraq discussion. In it, Congressman Kucinich
opposes the war while Congressman Fosella of the Republican party tries
(very badly) to support war. I say it's about time one of us
peace-supporters decided to run for President!
Forward this to those who support peace (or who would support peace
when given enough hope). ;)
FYI: NOVAK and BEGALA are Crosstalk's hosts.
----------------------BEGINNING OF
TRANSCRIPT-------------------------------
NOVAK: President Bush called U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this
morning and told him the U.N. Security Council is playing an important
role in the Iraq situation, and the United States will continue to work
with it.
A new Iraq resolution is expected to be introduced Monday. Meanwhile,
Iraq is suddenly interested in opening a dialogue with the Bush
administration.
Democratic president candidate Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic congressman
from Ohio, remains in the CROSSFIRE. And joining us, from New York City,
is Republican Congressman Vito Fossella.
BEGALA: Congressman Fossella, thank you for joining us, sir.
Before the break, I was asking Congressman Kucinich when America should
commit troops. Governor Bush -- then governor, in one of the
presidential debates, was asked about this. Here's what he said, when he
said he would commit troops and how. I want you to listen and then
respond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm going to be judicious as to how to
use the military. It needs to be in our vital interest. The mission
needs to be clear, and the exit strategy obvious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEGALA: Congressman, what's our exit strategy from Iraq?
VITO FOSSELLA (R) NEW YORK: Well, I think fundamentally, what the
president is doing is upholding his constitutional obligation and that
is to protect the American people.
He has stated repeatedly that war is the last option, that Saddam
Hussein, who has systematically evaded inspections and we believe
engaged in developing weapons of mass destruction that one day, God
forbid, could be used against the United States or its allies. We are
going to seek to remove those, and put an end to this regime, so the
American people can live in peace and security.
So I think the president has done the right thing, despite the
criticisms from some. The reality is he's been moving judiciously. As
you just eluded to again, he's working closely with the Security Council
of the United Nations and building support for what I believe is in the
best interest of the American people.
BEGALA: Congressman, with respect, what's our exit strategy? You just
didn't answer the question. I mean, those are important points, but how
do we get out?
FOSSELLA: Well, I think that -- first and foremost, I think we need to
bring an end to Saddam Hussein and his reign of terror, and I think the
president is committed, along with the Congress, to help the Iraqi
people once they are liberated to form a free and open society, a
Democratic government that you and I benefit from every single day.
So I think the commitment will be there and is there.
NOVAK: I want to play for you a sound bite from Ari Fleischer, the
president's spokesman, at the White House briefing in Crawford, Texas
today. Let's listen to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FLEISCHER: The United Nations Security Council must enforce its own
resolutions. If the United Nations Security Council passes a resolution
that says Iraq must disarm, Iraq cannot have chemical weapons, Iraq
cannot have biological weapons and Iraq cannot have missiles that exceed
150 kilometers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOVAK: What is wrong with that? If there is United Nations -- if the
United Nations Security Council unanimously passes resolution, and the
Iraqis don't obey it, what alternative do we have but force?
KUCINICH: Iraq should be disarmed, and I think that Iraq should have a
regime where all of the weapons are gone. And I also think that the
United Nations has a responsibility to continue inspections.
But, having said that, the administration has not made its case to
invade Iraq. They haven't -- Bob, they haven't proven that Iraq was
connected to 9-11, to al Qaeda's role in 9-11.
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK: What about Iraq not obeying the resolution passed by the United
Nations?
KUCINICH: I think that the United Nations is clearly being pushed in the
direction of war by the Bush administration. And I also think that
that's not in the best interest of the world, that we -- the Bush
administration is threatening to destroy the United Nations over this,
just as they threatened NATO, just as they are threatening other nations
to go along.
I mean, the fact that Turkey is ready to join for what, $26 billion?
There's no checkout counter in the world big enough to hold all those
nations that are going to get into line to take money from this country
in order for us to go into Iraq. And at what cost? At a cost of $1
trillion when we're not meeting all the needs I this country? I don't
think so.
BEGALA: Congressman Fossella.
FOSSELLA: I think -- yes. Well, first of, I think...
BEGALA: Go ahead -- congressman.
FOSSELLA: I think the United Nations can serve a purpose, but clearly
when it can't enforce its own resolutions -- just a few weeks ago, for
example, one of its committees on disarmament, of all things, the chair
of that committee was supposed to be Iraq, of all countries.
So I think they do a good enough job of really making themselves
somewhat irrelevant, but ultimately what I think we need to do
altogether as Americans and those who love freedom and democracy, is to
bring an end to this reign of terror so that the American people can
live in peace.
You know, we saw on September 11, when terrorist can strike imminent,
unexpected, taking the lives of thousands -- too many men and women,
many of whom I represent. And I never want to see that again -- I never
want to see that again. I never want to see that again. And we should be
doing all we can. We should be doing all we can to bring an end to those
who harbor terrorists, support terrorists, sponsor terrorism and nations
that sponsor terrorism. That is, I believe, the fundamental
responsibility.
NOVAK: Let's let Congressman Kucinich in.
KUCINICH: OK. There's a lot of buzz words here, and in the whole
campaign to go after Iraq is just made-up of buzz words. It's not made
of any facts.
They cannot prove that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11 yet. The day
after those planes hit the World Trade Center, according to Bob Woodward
in a book, "Bush at War," page 49, Donald Rumsfeld was already talking
about attacking Iraq.
They're just trying to create a pretext to go after Iraq for any reason
whatsoever. They haven't made their case, and yet they're going to cost,
you know -- invasion or bombing, invasion, occupation, it's going to
cost this economy $1 trillion. We don't have that money. We have money
to blow up bridges over the Tigress and Euphrates and we don't have
money to build bridges in our major cities.
We have money to destroy the health of the Iraqi people and we don't
have enough money to repair the health of our own people in this
country. There is something fundamentally wrong with the direction this
administration is taking its foreign policy, and I intend to change that
if I am elected president of the United States.
BEGALA: Congressman Fossella, let me get to the -- what you just said --
and you used some very, very emotional language about 9-11. I lost
friends on that day as well, and Iraq had nothing to do with it
whatsoever.
But the argument that you...
FOSSELLA: I don't think you know that at all.
BEGALA: We haven't seen a shred of evidence, sir, with respect. But the
argument is, we need a preventive war or this will happen again, that's
the gravamen of what you just said. It's what President Bush has been
telling us.
Let me read to you from a guy who knew a little something about war,
Dwight David Eisenhower, five-star general, general of the army,
president of the United States of America. This is what he said about
this doctrine of preventive war.
He said, "All of us have heard this term "preventive war" since the
earliest days of Hitler. I recall that's about the first time I heard
it. In this day and time, I don't believe there is such a thing, and
frankly I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and
talked about such a thing."
Do you know more than Dwight Eisenhower, sir?
FOSSELLA: I never profess to know more than anybody, but all I have is
my own judgment. And my judgment is that when -- at the end of the Gulf
war, Saddam Hussein agreed to allow unfettered inspections and agreed
not to develop weapons of mass destruction. We have evidence, we believe
that he has biological, chemical and nuclear weapon capabilities, not
that he could only use them but offer -- perhaps offer them with
blackmail or, ultimately, to a terrorist organization. I don't want to
wake up one day and know that we did nothing about that. And if the next
generations of Americans have to live in fear of this...
(CROSSTALK)
(APPLAUSE)
KUCINICH: And wait a minute. I don't want to -- I don't want to wake up
one day -- I don't want to wake up one day and see we have given our
civil liberties away in this country to a phony war campaign that's
going to go everywhere around the world with an American imperium! I'm
not...
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK: We're out of time.
(CROSSTALK)
NOVAK: ... Mr. Kucinich. No time, Mr. Fossella. Congressman
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) just one quick question. When the fighting starts and
our men and women are in harm's way, will you be continuing to attack
this policy, or will you support the troops?
KUCINICH: I support the troops, and I'd say support the troops, get rid
of the administration and bring the troops back home!
(APPLAUSE)
BEGALA: Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Democrat who's running for
president, thank you very much for joining us. Congressman Vito Fossella
from New York, thank you, as well, sir.
--------------------------END OF
TRANSCRIPT---------------------------------
There were some segments of Kucinich's interview, not pertaining to the
war,
that I edited out. If interested in getting the full transcript of the
interview, visit: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/21/cf.00.html
If you're interested in learning more about Kucinich, visit:
www.kucinich.net.
