Post #111

Subject: Nine questions

Here are nine questions that I’d like to see every Presidential candidate answer – well, at least six answers. And I think every voter should answer, too, by the way. My responses and additions – in [brackets]….

1. Did you support our going into Afghanistan? [Yes]
2. If no, why not?
3. If yes, what did you want us to accomplish? [To get those who attacked us on 9/11 – including you-know-who, to destroy terrorist training camps where future attacks could be hatched, to topple the government that harbored ‘em.]

4. Did you support our going into Iraq? [No]
5. If no, why not? [As I – and others, by the way – feared BEFORE our troops went there, the Iraq War has been and remains a drain on and a diversion from the War on Terror and making us less secure as we continue to bleed, making the War on Terror – that is, the fight against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan – longer and harder. As I said BEFORE we went into Iraq, the first time we are wrong about the reasons for a “pre-emptive war,” the harder it will be to launch another “pre-emptive war” – even if the evidence is clearer. The Iraq War itself is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, our real enemy – we are losing the ability to respond militarily to other threats. Even Hitler appreciated the dangers of two fronts]
6. If yes, what did you want us to accomplish? [Well, once we went anyway, to secure and destroy WMD, to topple Saddam. Now, we are stuck in a never-ending war. The best simile I heard about the War is that the administration was like kids playing with matches and it blew up in their faces – they’ve been inventing reasons ever since.]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, September 11, 2007)

SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: So the question we must answer is not whether we are winning or losing in Iraq but whether Iraq is helping or hurting our efforts to defeat al Qaeda. That is the lesson of 9/11.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

7. Do you support our bombing Iran? [No]
8. If no, why not? [We ought not to target Iran, another country that has not attacked us and does not threaten us. Why ensure that another generation of 65 million Muslims hate us?]
9. If yes, what do you want us to accomplish?