Say Anything Blog

There are rarely more offensive statements than this one:

You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

In 1994, I left the pre-med (actually Biology and Chemistry) program at Montana State University to join the US Navy as a Hospital Corpsman.  I graduated top 10 in my graduating class from high school and was an honors student, National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, and when I did finish my degree at ASU, graduated Summa Cum Laude at the top of my class with a 4.0 GPA.  And in my Corps School Class, I finished 7th out of 70 students.  I was not even the smartest or brightest person there. 

Lots of people do well AND CHOOSE to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Lots of people go to the Naval Academy or West Point and are valedictorians of their high school and all state or conference athletes.  Our military officers are among the best and brightest in the world.  And I am proud to say I am a Veteran of the United States Military.

So I am going to give a brief history lesson on how you get stuck in Iraq from Wiki:

“Iraq Resolution” and “Iraq War Resolution” are popular names for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public law 107-243, 116 Stat. 1497-1502) was a law passed by the United States Congress authorizing what was soon to become the Iraq War. The authorization was sought by President George W. Bush. Introduced as H.J.Res. 114, it passed the House on October 10 by a vote of 296-133, and by the Senate on October 11 by a vote of 77-23. It was signed into law by President Bush on October 16, 2002.

Your Congressmen and Senators send you there with their vote to allow the President to use force.  Posted on that same page is a list of folks in the Senate that voted against the resolution:

Daniel Akaka (D-HI) Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Robert Byrd (D-WV) Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) Jon Corzine (D-NJ) Kent Conrad (D-ND) Mark Dayton (D-MN) Dick Durbin (D-IL) Russ Feingold (D-WI) Bob Graham (D-FL) Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Jim Jeffords (I-VT) Ted Kennedy (D-MA) Patrick Leahy (D-VT) Carl Levin (D-MI) Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) Patty Murray (D-WA) Jack Reed (D-RI) Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Paul Wellstone (D-MN) Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Notice that John Kerry’s name is not there.  So folks, the way that you end up in Iraq is by voting into office folks like John Kerry that recklessly authorize the use of force to President Bush.  If there were questions of exit strategy, whether Saddam had WMDs or not, etc., why did Kerry vote to allow President Bush to get us into this mess?  And ultimately, I respect the folks of Connecticut in the Democratic Party who tossed Joe Lieberman over this very issue.  Senators should be held accountible for their votes by their constituents, just as John Kerry should be held accountible for his vote to authorize the use of force and he should be held accountible for his reckless statement about the men and women serving there now.  Because those men and women would not be there if not for the 73 Senators including John Kerry that authorized the use of force.

Here is the difference between John Kerry and Joe Lieberman--both voted for the use of force.  Kerry tries to nuance his way around his vote and pacify his critics.  He makes constant charges against the administration and against our troops.  Joe Lieberman calls for changes to our strategy, but stands by his original vote to go to war and stands by the troops.  Like the war or not, there is a public record of how we got there.

I believe that Joe Lieberman should be re-elected in Connecticut.  But I also believe that the Nutroots folks did the right thing by nominating Lamont.  They sent a message that folks would be held accountible for their votes on Iraq and their stand.  And now Kerry has pandered to them as has the entire Democratic Party out of fear of Soros and big money and Hollywood.  This election is about whether to support a party that “stays the course” and stands by their decisions or a party that tries to hide behind nuances and run away from their own votes that got us into Iraq and along the way blames the troops and backhandedly slaps them by saying it is their own incompetence as well as the President’s that we are losing this war. 

We are not losing this war.  Our troops are not idiots.  And you cannot run from your vote, no matter how hard you try.  And America needs to hear that message.