As you can see at my website,
MassaforCongress.com, this morning I am attending two breakfasts in Washington, one with Representative Jack Murtha and the other with the Veterans' Alliance for Security and Democracy. I look forward to discussing National Security issues with them. There are many non-Veterans in the Democratic Party, like President Clinton for example, who have made great contributions to discussion of National Security. But I can say with absolute certainty that with the tremendous activity of Veterans like Congressman Murtha, other Veterans, and Veterans-related groups, Democrats are stronger than ever on National Security.
To win in November, we have to nationalize the election and make Bush's failures in Afghanistan and Iraq the central issue. We have to emphasize the need for a Democratic Congress to serve as a balance to the President and limit his ability to further endanger our National Security with his misguided agenda and unrelenting ineptitude.
General Clark (
link) has pointed out that while we have many issues that we must make long-term efforts to educate the electorate on, that in these last weeks before the election we must concentrate on those issues that motivate the voters and for which Democrats have clear and effective goals.
This is how to successfully nationalize the election. We have a lot to talk about. The lack of follow through on a war that should have been fought (Afghanistan) and one that was unnecessary (Iraq) are the twin cornerstones on which to attack the worst administration in American history and the worst blunders ever in our international undertakings that have made us vulnerable with a stretched out military that cannot achieve its objectives and an economy that is in tatters trying to support foreign misadventures.
Afghanistan is coming apart at the seams (link) and the War in Iraq has made the terror threat worse, despite the President's desperate efforts to claim otherwise. (link) And on top of this, and devastating to our military and our international relations, the war in Iraq has been fought with blind incompetence (link) and our armed forces are now bogged down in a quagmire for which the Bush administration is clueless to fix.
We've all heard that Karl Rove is promising Republicans an October Surprise. Most people are focusing on the recent discussions about a potential invasion of Iran (link, link, link) and/or the possibility that Osama will be "caught" and his capture trumpeted as a major success of the Bush "War on Terror." Like General Clark (link), I feel that President Bush wants a war with Iran. And I think the only way to possibly stop that is to elect a Democratic congress that will hold the President accountable.
With respect to the "October Surprise," the main piece of advice I have is that we don't need to get too distracted trying to second guess what Karl Rove and his band of partisan liars and thugs have dreamed up to throw at us. Instead we need to get on the offensive, as described above, and use all the failures related to the War in Iraq as the center of our nationalization of the election. We need to keep repeating that Bush has blown the war against the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, and thus undercut our National Security, because he took his eye off Afghanistan to invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. And, above all, repeating that the war in Iraq has made the terror threat worse instead of better.
This is the direction we need to take to put our nation back on course and amend the egregious errors of this administration. This is what will take the neocons and their allies down. It must be pursued aggressively and unrelentingly for the sake of the future of our nation and that of the entire world.
The future is at stake. We must elect a Democratic Congress.
Eric Massa