Note: Written Last Night During Debate.
Tonight John Kerry and his Democratic supporters are having an extremely wise debate over the current state of Iraq and Mr.Kerry's proposal to withdraw most forces from Iraq by July 1 2007, leaving special forces to help the some 400,000 combined Iraqi Soldiers, Police Forces, and other trained protectors of the peace.
The New York Times ran an article in which they talked about the division within the Democratic party about the two amendments on Iraq. Here is an excerpt.
Mr. Kerry's insistence on pushing ahead with his own plan has left the Democrats divided, and open to renewed Republican accusations that they are indecisive and weak the same ridicule that Republicans heaped on Mr. Kerry in 2004, when his "I was for it before I was against it" statement about a vote on money for the war became a punch line.
We as a party need to show we are not weak, and we should be rallying behind Kerry. His points make valid sense. They show resolve and backbone, unlike the Republicans. The American people WILL see that if they look past the cut and run jargon!
-Create a summit in order to bring together all parties for the common good, to create peace.
-Leave behind the necessary forces to train the final troops, keep the government in order, and oversee the assets of the United States
-Get our National Guard home to protect against attacks or natural disasters here.
-Keep our troops out of the civil war which now accounts for 98% of the violence in Iraq.
We cannot stop a civil war without bringing all the parties together in order to solve fundamental differences in values. It is that simple. What Mr. Kerry is saying is that we are NOT doing this right and that let's change it, not "cut and run". Let's keep our troops in Afghanistan for example, to fight the second emergence of the Taliban. How can these partisan, neo-conservatives use American lives to say that we will stay the course, when there is no plan. How does Kerry's plan not make sense to every single person in this country? (other than those in the war for money and greed.)
He has a PLAN. Bush and friends do NOT have a plan. It is that simple. So for Democrats to say, when someone finally comes out with some guts and not tip toe around the issues, that it is hurting us, how does that make sense? It doesn't. This war is a failure right now, and we can fix it without losing billions of dollars and thousands of lives.
It is time to end this debate. Thankfully Senator Warner of Virginia is somewhat reasonable. Vote for the Kerry amendment senators, before it is too late. We can show the country that this amendment makes valid sense! Just be unified on the issues.