Second-Guessing the Dems

If I were a Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination, I might give an "Iraq speech" like this:

When I was first asked to speak to the issue, the question of whether or not we should go to war in Iraq was pressing. We had not yet launched our days and nights of "shock and awe", and our brave men and women in service had not yet rolled across Iraq's borders. Those days have now passed, and the question of "should we do it" is now a question of the past.

At this time, I am certain of the following: that we did Iraq and the world a great favor by removing the tyrant Hussein from power, never to return. Whatever the merit of criticism that we chose this war for the wrong reasons, we nonetheless chose this war and committed to a course of action. While it remains true that there are other tyrants in the world, the reality is that we are not able to remove them all from power. Many Americans strongly disagree with the choice to target Iraq, but Americans do agree that the Iraqi people – that all people – are deserving of freedom.

We now face an unfortunate reality, where many of the Bush Administration's staunchest defenders now concede that it took us into war either on faulty premises or false pretenses.

1. Before the war we were told that Iraq had large stockpiles of horrendous weapons, and active programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. We were told that the Administration knew exactly where those weapons would be found. Now we are told that Iraq wished to have weapons programs, and that eventually we may produce evidence of those programs.



2. Before the war, we were told that Hussein was an immediate threat to the world, and now we know that he was caged and impotent. As a tyrant he posed a continuing threat to his own people, but his neighbors and the world were safe.



3. Before the war, it was wrongly suggested – particularly by Vice President Cheney – that there were clear ties between Iraq and those who attacked us on September 11. President Bush himself now admits that no such evidence exists – that there is no evidence to connect the war on Iraq with the war on those who attacked us.

Some who opposed the war, and some who supported it, are angry. They find it hard to believe that this was not deliberate deception by the Bush Administration. Some believed President Bush when he kept repeating through the election in 1999, "I trust you". Trust is a powerful word. People who truly trust you do not lie to you, and people you trust inspire anger and sometimes even enmity when they lie. Yet the Bush Administration has never trusted us.

1. We aren't trusted to approve a war on Iraq, so we don't get to learn why it really occurred.



2. We aren't trusted with our basic freedoms, so we get the so-called "PATRIOT Act".



3. We aren't trusted with the background to this Administration's energy policies, even following a catastrophic blackout affecting much of our nation.



4. And now, as the Bush Administration's devotion to its proposed reinvention of Iraq seems to be wavering, we aren't trusted with its plans for that nation – or even an honest answer to the question of whether it has plans. We are asked to trust that the Bush Administration is not winging it in Iraq, even as their policies seem more defined by President Bush's latest approval rating than by the realities faced by this nation's soldiers and citizens.

I thus call on the people of America to do the right thing. To do the only thing we can do in our present situation, and to advance our true war on those who attacked us.

1. I implore Americans to press our nation's leaders to commit unambiguously to a development program in Iraq that will assure freedom for the Iraqi people, and lead toward a stable, progressive government for that nation.



2. I implore Americans to commit to making our nation and this world a better, safer place, for us and for our children.



3. I implore Americans to make our leaders promise that they will focus on attacking our real enemies – those who actually attacked us in the past, and those who intend to attack us in the future.



4. I implore Americans to force our leaders to promise that when a member of our armed services has to lay down his or her life for our nation, it will be to advance the cause of freedom, and that we will respect our fallen soldiers and their families.



5. I implore Americans to require our leaders to tell us what we need to know, for our own safety, for the safety of our families and loved ones, and for us to be able to make informed decisions about the direction our nation takes in our war on terror.

If President Bush, and the leaders of the House and Senate, cannot or will not commit to these most reasonable demands, I implore the American people to vote for better leadership in 2004.

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