By Ardain IsmaCSMS Magazine Staff writerIt seems in America that anything considered to be a raw truth is comparable to treason. Campaigning for the democrats and while giving a speech before some college students, John Kerry explained that unless they graduate, they will “get stuck in Iraq.” While his statement has angered republicans, many however still consider it as an honest comment; and this cannot be closer to the truth. This is a rare truth that came out of the mouth of a mainstream, conformist and career politician. None of the members in the leadership of this country has a close relative who is currently serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan. In fact, since Vietnam, children of the elite do not serve as soldiers in the United States Army; and army recruiters can only recruit the disenfranchised—those without a real hope of making it alone, and the fear of a bleak future forces them to cave in to recruiters’ psychological games. Kerry used a metaphor to warn the students about the dreadful alternative should they deviate from their course. It is understandable that GOP leaders are angry, but it sounds odd to believe that democratic leaders have also joined republicans in distancing themselves from Kerry. This was the case in Philadelphia last night. Kerry, who explained Tuesday that his comments were a “botched joke” targeting Bush, was forced to cancel an appearance with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Casey on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to CNN quoting a Democratic official.”I would be surprised if you see him welcomed out there anywhere,” the official said, “and certainly not in a race that is meaningful.” And according to Time Magazine, “strategists at both the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees told their candidates the flap is a distraction they don’t need right now.” If Kerry’s comments provide an opportunity for Republicans to go on the offensive on national security issues—a winning GOP strategy in 2002 and 2004 that has been blunted by the increasingly violent situation in Iraq—it is also clear that hiding the truth from the public has always been a mutually inclusive strategy that ideologues in both parties adhere to as the cornerstone behind United States foreign policy. The mounting death toll in Iraq has not gotten it ripple effect on policy-makers in Washington it is because those who are dying or are being incapacitated for life are the sons and daughters of the poor. More than 2,000 servicemen and women have died in Iraq since the war began with over 100 hundred death this month alone. Shockingly enough is the high volume of wounded soldiers rarely mentioned in the press. M ore than 40,000 Americans have suffered major injuries while servicing in Iraq. Many of those are paralyzed for life, living the psychological, overbearing job of taking care of them to their wives or their parents. America MUST open its eyes to speak with one voice, demanding a swift and complete withdrawal of our innocent soldiers from Iraq, fighting a conflict that they have nothing to do with. Finally, Kerry was right by refusing to relent, calling the criticism part of the “classic GOP playbook.” “I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq,” continued Kerry who further expressed disgust with “Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country.”Kerry was also right to conclude that Bush and Cheney “have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it.” By misleading America to war, the neoconservatives in Washington, not Kerry, clearly owe our troops and the public an apology. Comment this article or e-mail it to a friend.Also see Active-duty soldiers antiwar movement: https://csmsmagazine.org/news.php?pg=20061026I314
Senator John Kerry’s remarks: A blunder?
