Eric Massa is arunning for office in NY-29, a red district much like the one that of Hackett. He is a former aide of General Clark and is endorsed by him.
Speaker says he's not against war, only this war in Iraq
By KATIE WARD , The Times Herald
Retired career Naval officer and congressional candidate Eric Massa gave his take on the current state of the U.S. military Wednesday night.
His discussion of "The Impact of the War on U.S. Military Forces" was the second in a three-part series "Perspectives on the War in Iraq" at St. Bonaventure University.
Mr. Massa, a Republican-turned-Democrat due to what he described as "no hope at all for transparency in the current administrative process," discussed what he sees as a disaster in the making in Iraq - a lack of military strategy in an increasingly political theater of war.
"I strongly believe that the strategy we have in place today is a failed strategy. Until we redefine the terms of success in Iraq, we will be doomed to failure," said Mr. Massa. "We are creating the very environment we are trying to prevent."
Mr. Massa of Corning is vying for the 29th Congressional District seat against freshman Republican incumbent Randy Kuhl.
The U.S. Naval Academy graduate served in conflicts including Beirut and Operation Desert Storm. He was an aide to NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General Wesley Clark before being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which he attributes to exposure to petroleum fumes and depleted uranium during Desert Storm. After beating the disease, he retired from the Navy and now works as an international business accountant.
"I am not anti-war. I am anti-this war," said Mr. Massa.
Mr. Massa said he believes the Bush administration knew it did not have justifiable cause to invade Iraq, which is why the public explanation for the war moved from Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction, to his involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, to his evil nature when the other explanations didn't pan out.
Then why, he asked, did governmental violence against citizens in Darfur, Central Africa and North Korea go largely ignored?
The congressional hearings leading up to the Iraq invasion were "a Power Point extravaganza," he said, since few participants had military experience, and hardly anyone besides him questioned a lack of solidified military strategy.
"It is very, very difficult for a member of Congress who has never served in the military to take an anti-military position," he said.
In an unprecedented fourth time at bat for the administration, he said, the justification for military action has become, "If we are successful in creating a Jeffersonian democracy in Iraq, we will be secure."
"There was not an ice cube's chance in hell," said Mr. Massa. "This is fundamentally flawed. You can't believe a Jeffersonian democracy is attainable in Iraq."
Other Middle Eastern nations ruled by permanent leaders don't provide the close-to-home democratic support needed for this new Iraq, he said. And though the Iraq-Iran relationship has deep-rooted lines of conflict, many in both countries are now united by a common enemy -- America.
"(Political leaders) are consuming the military's very ability to defend this nation in times of true crisis. Every action we take and every dollar we spend must be measured against the yardstick of days, weeks or months, not years."
Mr. Massa blamed an inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina on an overextended and waning military force.
"We used to say, `call out the National Guard.' There was no National Guard (for Hurricane Katrina.) Some 40 percent of our National Guard are deployed," he said.
"The stock of military equipment has been consumed like a marshmallow in boiling hot chocolate."
"We have stretched our military forces beyond the breaking point," he continued. "And the Bush administration is outsourcing veterans care and closing VA hospitals all over the country. The political party in power today believes that the private sector can do anything better than any public sector can. They're learning the hard way that it's not saving money."
According to Mr. Massa, during the conflict in the Balkans in the 1990s, military strategy was to separate the warring parties and create semi-autonomous, ethnically cohabitable and economically sustainable areas bound loosely under a government of their own choosing. No such plan is apparent in Iraq, he said, and with an unlimited amount of insurgents, the country is headed for a bloody civil war.
"I believe this nation has an inherent right to strike back at someone who strikes at us, but we are now fueling the very fires of fanaticism that we were trying to quell," Mr. Massa concluded. "It can't be a Western solution to an Islamic problem. It has to be fundamentally, I believe, an indigenous solution."
A fundraiser is currently being raised for Wes here:
http://www.clarkvolunteers.com/index.php
Scroll down the center column. An animated graphic will be put up to track donations changing a red and blue map of the US into a red, white and flag.
Eric says what he believes and we need Dems like this in Congress. Also visit his website and read the posts and comments on his blog.
http://www.clarkvolunteers.com/index.php
We need to prevent the disaster of administrations who cannot handle disasters of any sort, natural or terrorists!
Noel