An Open Letter to Dennis Kucinich

Dear Congressman Kucinich,

Recently, you wrote an open letter to Howard Dean – that I
believe even for you is opportunistic and misleading. You of all people should
know not to quote others out of context, and misrepresent their intent,
intelligence, meaning and message. If you simply commented from reading a
couple of news reports, I invite you to please listen to the full speech and
the Q&A session at the Minnesota Public Radio website.
The reason I ask you to do so is that your quote of Howard Dean simply is not
the whole truth.

Howard Dean's comments that we cannot simply pull out of Iraq
right away and that we're going to be there for a while is not the right wing
rah rah of the Bush administration. It is rather a thoughtful collection of the
incredible insight and intelligence of this man. Let me quote Howard Dean… in the relevant part:

Press Question: What is your position on Iraq
and pre-emptive strikes on other countries by the US?

Howard Dean:  (The following is an excerpt of Gov. Dean's remarks.  To hear his comments in their entirety, click here).

“I think my position on those issues was well known during
the campaign. Actually, my position on Iraq
right now is that we can't get out. Because if we do, we – uh, look, I
opposed [Bush] bitterly. I think I was the only person of the major
candidates
who really did think what [Bush] did was awful. It was just bad, dumb
policy. And – however, now that we're there, we're there.

“So, here's – here's one of the reasons I opposed [Bush], it wasn't just because he wasn't telling the truth. It was because
this is a part of the world which has no experience in democracy in 7,000 years
of culture. And the idea that we're going to go in there and in two years, turn
everything around and everybody was going to sing Kumbaya and elect a president
was, I would say, naive at best. So here we are now with 135,000 troops on the
ground. We've had an election. It was modestly successful, I think. But we're
going to stay there for a while…



“But – I wish I could say we should bring the troops home as
fast as we can – I believe we should bring the troops home as fast as we can –
but we cannot do it at the expense of the security of the United
States. And I think – what I think is
actually going to happen, which I wish it wouldn't, and I hope I am wrong, and
I hope [Bush] is incredibly successful with his policy now that we're
there. But what I think is going to happen is [that] the American people are
going to get tired of having our kids killed one by one by roadside bombs, and
sometime well after [Bush] is out of office, we're going to have to
bring the troops home.



“But this time, unlike what happened in Vietnam,
where we have a[n] authoritarian government set up that's not a danger to America,
what comes after is very likely to be a huge national security problem for America.

Congressman, I am not saying that reasonable people can't
disagree with the position Dean has taken, and the reasons he has given for it.
We can have a debate about how much merit those reasons hold (although I am
predisposed to believe him since he has turned out to be right and effective on
so many things – and I am not just talking about Iraq).
But his thoughtful comments do not deserve your mistreatment that Howard Dean
is trying to sweep the Iraq
issue under the rug or your insinuation that Gov. Dean is succumbing to
pressures and doing the Bush administration's bidding on the war in Iraq,
or that he is anything less than dedicated to representing the Democratic Wing
of the Democratic Party.

Please reconsider your rhetoric, Mr. Kucinich. By bashing
Howard Dean and accusing him of being complicit beyond reason, you are not
doing anyone any good – not the Democratic Party, and not the peace movement.  Thank you. 

 deaniac83