Iranian Monitor
08 Sep 2004, 02:56 AM
My Fellow Americans,
Today we stand at the threshold of an election that will define for many generations to come, who we are as a nation -- and where we want our country to lead? Seldom has an election presented as stark a choice and as important a question: Will we be a nation that seeks to continue on the path set for it by our Founders, true to the sacrifices of the generations that followed them, and resolute in the ability to meet the challenges ahead? Or will we become a nation misled on a path with little to share in that vision -- and none in its greatest principles and ideals?
On September 11 our nation was attacked, and in the immediate aftermath of that attack, we were united to meet the enemy -- to vanquish it as we have vanquished the enemies of freedom and liberty in the past. As a Senator, I saw myself a foot soldier in that war -- and wanted to deny my President none of the tools necessary to successfully wage and fight that war and to win it. I joined the overwhelming majority of Americans in supporting the President going after Al Queda and the Taleban regime that sheltered them. I even voted to authorize the President to use force, if necessary, to oust the brutal regime of the dictator Saddam Hussein. I do not regret that I stood to give my President all the tools he sought to fight the enemies of freedom and liberty; I regret only that the person I trusted with my support proved so undeserving of it.
Today, nothing sounds true in the rhetoric used by the President to justify the way he chose to conduct this war. None of it can withstand scrutiny of the facts -- fact that clearly show us having been misled.
Not misled just by false intelligence; not misled only because of over enthusiastic assumptions; not misled by mere idealistic hubris. Misled, rather, by a plan to a lead us on a path that none of us were even told. I did not vote for the so-called Project for a New American Century when I voted to authorize force in Iraq. That project was not borne out of 9/11; that was a plan that predated it.
Yet, that is the plan that the President chose -- and that is the plan which in turn defined all of the actions and inactions that have made the subsequent rhetoric sound hallow when measured against the real facts. Facts that see the sacrifices of American blood and treasure in Iraq go unrewarded in a quagmire that shows no clear end in sight. Facts that see us having spent the great capital represented in the admiration felt for America across much of the globe -- seeing it replaced with mistrust, anger, and scorn. Facts that see our economy, in the meantime, trade a trillion dollar surplus with deficits that large -- all without the American people having even enjoyed the temporary benefits that ordinarily come to those who live so beyond their means.
America's treasure has been wasted; America's good name has been damaged; America's blood has been spilled; American liberties have been sacrificed; American ideals have been compromised; all while our ability to fight our true enemies has weakened, not strengthened.
In choosing the path he chose, the President chose a plan at odds with everything that defines who we are as a nation. In choosing the path that I suggest, we will reclaim who we are as a nation -- and, in doing so, we will vanquish the enemies of freedom and liberty still.
Let their be no doubt: as President I will show no mercy, and give no quarter, to those who seek to do our nation harm. I will vigorously fight our real enemies, while expanding the circle that make up our friends. I will do this without sacrificing who we are as a nation -- nor losing sight of where we have always intended to lead.
Today we stand at the threshold of an election that will define for many generations to come, who we are as a nation -- and where we want our country to lead? Seldom has an election presented as stark a choice and as important a question: Will we be a nation that seeks to continue on the path set for it by our Founders, true to the sacrifices of the generations that followed them, and resolute in the ability to meet the challenges ahead? Or will we become a nation misled on a path with little to share in that vision -- and none in its greatest principles and ideals?
On September 11 our nation was attacked, and in the immediate aftermath of that attack, we were united to meet the enemy -- to vanquish it as we have vanquished the enemies of freedom and liberty in the past. As a Senator, I saw myself a foot soldier in that war -- and wanted to deny my President none of the tools necessary to successfully wage and fight that war and to win it. I joined the overwhelming majority of Americans in supporting the President going after Al Queda and the Taleban regime that sheltered them. I even voted to authorize the President to use force, if necessary, to oust the brutal regime of the dictator Saddam Hussein. I do not regret that I stood to give my President all the tools he sought to fight the enemies of freedom and liberty; I regret only that the person I trusted with my support proved so undeserving of it.
Today, nothing sounds true in the rhetoric used by the President to justify the way he chose to conduct this war. None of it can withstand scrutiny of the facts -- fact that clearly show us having been misled.
Not misled just by false intelligence; not misled only because of over enthusiastic assumptions; not misled by mere idealistic hubris. Misled, rather, by a plan to a lead us on a path that none of us were even told. I did not vote for the so-called Project for a New American Century when I voted to authorize force in Iraq. That project was not borne out of 9/11; that was a plan that predated it.
Yet, that is the plan that the President chose -- and that is the plan which in turn defined all of the actions and inactions that have made the subsequent rhetoric sound hallow when measured against the real facts. Facts that see the sacrifices of American blood and treasure in Iraq go unrewarded in a quagmire that shows no clear end in sight. Facts that see us having spent the great capital represented in the admiration felt for America across much of the globe -- seeing it replaced with mistrust, anger, and scorn. Facts that see our economy, in the meantime, trade a trillion dollar surplus with deficits that large -- all without the American people having even enjoyed the temporary benefits that ordinarily come to those who live so beyond their means.
America's treasure has been wasted; America's good name has been damaged; America's blood has been spilled; American liberties have been sacrificed; American ideals have been compromised; all while our ability to fight our true enemies has weakened, not strengthened.
In choosing the path he chose, the President chose a plan at odds with everything that defines who we are as a nation. In choosing the path that I suggest, we will reclaim who we are as a nation -- and, in doing so, we will vanquish the enemies of freedom and liberty still.
Let their be no doubt: as President I will show no mercy, and give no quarter, to those who seek to do our nation harm. I will vigorously fight our real enemies, while expanding the circle that make up our friends. I will do this without sacrificing who we are as a nation -- nor losing sight of where we have always intended to lead.