Fw: Real Security for America

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Kerry" <info@johnkerry.com>
To: <miriamvieni@optonline.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 2:27 PM
Subject: Real Security for America

>
>
> Dear Friend,
>
> Thank you for your interest in reading my plan to achieve a more secure
> future for America.
>
> As Democrats, we have to do more than oppose what has failed. We have to
> actively propose a new course that can clean up the disaster in Iraq, and
> defeat jihadist terrorism once and for all. This speech, delivered today
> in Boston's Faneuil Hall, outlines my ideas for how we can do just that.
>
> I look forward to working with you on this critical issue in the weeks
> ahead.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> John Kerry
>
> --------------------------------
>
> Real Security for All Americans
> As prepared for delivery.
> September 9, 2006
> Faneuil Hall, Boston
>
> The war on terror that was brought home to the Casey family on a sunny
> autumn morning that suddenly turned into midnight five years ago, also
> brought home for all of humanity the stark reality that we are in a
> fateful contest between forces of evil and hate and the defenders of
> progress and hope.
>
> The outcome will determine whether our children live in freedom or fear.
> This is a clash between humanity's best ideals and the darkness of
> superstition and oppression. And this is not a clash of faiths: the true
> Islam is a faith to live by, not a call to terrorize and kill.
>
> In this war, the war against terrorism, there is no substitute for
> victory. I don't know a single American who needs a politician to remind
> them that we have to win this fight.
>
> On Monday, we will commemorate our largest loss of civilian life on a
> single day in American history. As we remember the horror, the
> unforgettable shock, and the pride in those who rushed to the rescue, it
> is our duty to take account as a nation of where we have come since that
> terrible moment and where we must go if we are to keep America safe in
> these perilous times.
>
> Since the beginning, at critical moments in our nation's history,
> Americans have gathered here at Faneuil Hall to find a better way forward.
> This is where Americans first agreed on our nation's promise and where
> they have gathered ever since to help our country keep it.
>
> That is why you and I have convened here four times so far this year -- to
> chart a new course, for a nation that has been misled on global climate
> change, misled on health care, misled on fundamental constitutional
> values, and misled into a war that was based on a lie, a war that can and
> must be brought to a close.
>
> Donald Rumsfeld -- the man who should have been fired as Secretary of
> Defense long ago -- Donald Rumsfeld recently gave a low and ugly speech in
> which he smeared those who dissent from a catastrophic policy, and then
> spoke of "moral confusion."
>
> Well, there certainly is a lot of moral confusion around these days.
>
> It is immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die in a
> conflict without a strategy that can work -- on a mission that has not
> weakened terrorism but worsened it.
>
> It is immoral to lie about progress in that war to get through a news
> cycle or an election.
>
> It is immoral to treat 9/11 as a political pawn -- and to continue to
> excuse the invasion of Iraq by exploiting the 3,000 mothers and fathers,
> sons and daughters who were lost that day. They were attacked and killed
> not by Saddam Hussein but by Osama bin Laden.
>
> And it is deeply immoral to compare a majority of Americans who oppose a
> failing policy and seek a winning one to appeasers of Fascism and Naziism.
>
> The leaders of this administration have shown in recent days that they
> will say anything, do anything, twist any truth, and endanger our nation's
> character as one America in a desperate ploy to survive a mid term
> election.
>
> But Americans now see through this charade. They know the truth. We have a
> Katrina foreign policy -- a succession of blunders and failures that have
> betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the
> terrorist threat instead of defeating it.
>
> Every time the administration is down in the polls, every time their
> political opponents at home appear to gain, they trot out of the fear
> card, instead of reinforcing in Americans "there is nothing to fear but
> fear itself," they have nothing to offer but fear itself.
>
> The President wants Americans to believe only one party wants to fight
> terror. That's a cynical game to try to win an election. I believe we need
> a game plan to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden, not capture a few
> Congressional seats.
>
> I believe we need national leadership capable of raising hopes and
> inspiring trust, not raising fears and demanding blind faith. We need to
> marshal all our resources -- military, diplomatic, economic, and moral --
> and first and foremost always tell the truth to the American people.
>
> That is why on the eve of this midterm election, we Democrats have a
> unique responsibility to carry our cause into every corner of the
> nation -- not just to oppose what has failed but to propose a new
> direction that can restore a bipartisan foreign policy and that can defeat
> jihadist terrorism once and for all.
>
> In order to change course, we must level with the American people about
> the magnitude of the challenge: we must face reality so we can change it.
>
> This starts by leveling with the American people about Iraq's true
> position in the overall fight against jihadism. The President pretends
> Iraq is the central front on the war on terror. It is not now, and never
> has been. The truth is, his disastrous decisions have made Iraq a fuel
> depot for terror -- fanning the flames of conflict around the world.
>
> There is simply no way to overstate how Iraq has subverted our efforts to
> free the world from global terror. It has overstretched our military. It
> has served as an essential recruitment tool for terrorists. It has divided
> and pushed away our traditional allies. It has diverted critical billions
> of dollars from the real front lines against terrorism and from homeland
> security. It has unleashed dangerous, pent-up forces of radical religious
> extremism. It has weakened moderate leaders in the Middle East. It has
> strengthened and played into Iran's hand. It has diminished our moral
> authority in the world.
>
> The demagogic drumbeat about fighting terrorists over there instead of
> here -- even though they weren't in Iraq until we went in, and it's now a
> civil war we're fighting -- has compromised America's real interests and
> made us less safe than we ought to be five years after 9/11. The true
> measure of that is the stark fact that worldwide terrorist attacks are at
> an all-time high and there are now more terrorists in the world who want
> to kill Americans than there were at the time of 9/11.
>
> After all the tough talk of "Wanted Dead or Alive," after the
> Administration bragged and boasted -- they meekly backed off in the
> mountains of Tora Bora. Osama bin Laden escaped because the administration
> held back the best military in the world -- our's -- and outsourced the
> job to local militias. Since then Al Qaeda has spawned a vast and
> decentralized network operating in 65 countries. Only Dick Cheney could
> call this a success.
>
> The situation in Afghanistan deteriorates steadily, squandering the
> sacrifices of our troops and allies in the military campaign of 2002. The
> Taliban now controls entire portions of southern Afghanistan, and just
> across the border Pakistan is just one coup away from becoming a radical
> jihadist state with a full compliment of nuclear weapons. Only Don
> Rumsfeld could proclaim this a victory.
>
> The Middle East is more unstable than it has been in decades. Our stalwart
> ally Israel is surrounded by emboldened enemies who talk of wiping it off
> the face of the earth. Hezbollah flags fly from rooftops in Shiia slums of
> Sadr City and Iran is rebuilding Southern Lebanon. Only an Administration
> trapped in its own falsehoods could say we are making progress in creating
> a new Middle East.
>
> North Korea has quadrupled its nuclear weapons capability, and is
> defiantly testing missiles that could reach our shores. Iran is moving
> steadily towards membership in the nuclear club; has expanded its
> terrorist clientele from Hezbollah to Hamas; maintains thousands of agents
> in Iraq; and is governed by a fanatic who almost daily calls for Israel's
> destruction. Only George W Bush could declare this 'mission accomplished.'
>
> The Bush-Cheney policies have limited our power to act decisively and the
> regime in Tehran knows it. We have over 130,000 American troops in Iraq in
> the middle of a seething Shiite population that would explode if we moved
> against Iran. Our troops and our foreign policy are held hostage by the
> neocon catastrophe in Iraq. Only this White House could name this a plan
> for victory.
>
> And be forewarned : don't be surprised if they hype the Iranian nuclear
> crisis come October if all other appeals to fear are failing as the
> mid-term election approaches.
>
> We have an Iraqi Prime Minister sustained in power by our forces, who will
> not speak against the Hezbollah terrorists, who will not say that Israel
> has a right to exist, and who will not condemn the Iranian nuclear
> program. No American soldier should be asked to stand up for an Iraqi
> government that won't stand up for freedom and against fear
>
> Here at home, too many things have not changed in the last five years. We
> learned on 9/11 painful lessons about the costs of a dysfunctional
> intelligence system marred by bureaucratic infighting, inadequate
> resources, and faulty analysis. Yet the 9/11 commission recently gave our
> own government a failing grade on implementing intelligence reforms.
> Today, our ability to intercept terrorist communications remains in a
> legal and constitutional limbo.
>
> The Dubai port deal reminded us only a small percentage of cargoes
> entering U.S. ports are even inspected. Surely if we can inspect cargoes
> at the Baghdad airport, we can inspect cargoes at the airports in Los
> Angeles, New York, and right here in Boston.
>
> This is the reality of the world today -- a world more dangerous because
> of the Bush blunders and a challenge far more complicated than the gruff
> Cheney sound bites. America deserves -- our safety depends -- on a winning
> strategy to reverse this dangerous course and make our country more
> secure.
>
> There are five principal priorities that demand immediate action: (1)
> redeploy from Iraq, (2) re-commit to Afghanistan, (3) reduce our
> dependence on foreign oil, (4) reinforce our homeland defense, and (5)
> restore America's moral leadership in the world. These "5 R's" -- if you
> want to call them that-- are bold steps Democrats will take to strengthen
> our national security, and that the Republicans who have set the agenda
> today resist to our national peril.
>
> We must refocus our military efforts from the failed occupation of Iraq to
> what we should have been doing all along: tracking down and killing
> members of al Qaeda and their clones wherever they are. We must redeploy
> troops from Iraq -- maintain enough residual force to complete the
> training and deter foreign intervention, so we can free up resources to
> fight the global war on terror.
>
> Republicans want to wrap this strategy in slogans because they're afraid
> to debate what it really is: a redeploy-to-succeed strategy -- to succeed
> in defeating world wide terror, and to succeed in making Iraqis themselves
> responsible for Iraq.
>
> This is the opposite of the administration's stand-still-and-lose
> strategy - -a clear alternative from a broken policy of "more of the
> same." Every time President Bush tells the Iraqis we will "stay as long as
> it takes," he is giving squabbling politicians there an excuse to take as
> long as they want. All of us want democracy in Iraq but Iraqis must want
> it for themselves as much as we want it for them. It's long overdue for
> the president to realize that no American soldier should be sacrificed
> because Iraqi factions refuse to resolve their ethnic rivalries and their
> competing grasp for oil revenues.
>
> At each step along the way, the Iraqi leaders have responded only to
> deadlines-a deadline to transfer authority to a provisional government, a
> deadline to write a Constitution, a deadline to hold three elections. So
> we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on
> its own two feet-- a clear deadline of July, 2007 to redeploy our combat
> troops. Make Iraqis stand up for Iraq -- and bring our heroes home.
>
> We also desperately need something else this administration disdains:
> diplomacy. Real diplomacy -- a Dayton-like summit of Iraq and the
> countries bordering it, the Arab League, NATO, and the Permanent Members
> of the United Nations Security Council. Our own generals have said Iraq
> can not be solved militarily. Only through negotiation and diplomacy can
> you stem the growing civil war, and only by setting a deadline to get out
> can we force Iraq and its neighbors to take diplomacy seriously.
>
> "Staying the course" isn't far-sighted; it's blind. Leaving our troops in
> the middle of a civil war isn't resolute; it's reckless. Half of the
> service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's
> leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would
> be immoral now to engage in the same delusion.
>
> Neither can the Administration pretend that the war in Afghanistan is over
> or that the peace has been secured. On Thursday the president said we're
> on the offensive against terrorists in Afghanistan, even as the American
> NATO commander on the ground showed the opposite is true by making an
> urgent plea for more troops.
>
> The truth is -- the Bush-Cheney Administration has engaged in a policy of
> cut and run in that country. This Administration has cut and run while the
> Taliban-led insurgency is running amok across entire regions of the
> country. The Administration has cut and run while Osama bin Laden and his
> henchmen hide and plot in a lawless no-man's land. They cut and run even
> as we learn from Pakistani intelligence that the mastermind of the most
> recent attempt to blow up American airliners was an al Qaeda leader
> operating from Afghanistan -- yes, from Afghanistan. That's right -- the
> same killers who attacked us on 9/11 are still plotting attacks against
> America and they're still holed up in Afghanistan.
>
> To avoid repeating the terrible mistakes of the past, we need to send
> significant reinforcements to Afghanistan: Start with at least five
> thousand additional American troops --more elite Special Forces troops,
> the best counter-insurgency units in the world; more civil affairs forces;
> and more experienced intelligence units. More predator drones to find the
> enemy, more helicopters to allow rapid deployments to confront them, and
> more heavy combat equipment to make sure we can crush the terrorists. And
> more reconstruction money so that the elected government in Kabul, helped
> by the United States, not the Taliban, helped by al Qaeda, rebuilds the
> new Afghanistan.
>
> That's how you win the hearts and minds of the local population, that's
> how you win a war on terror, that's how you show the world the true face
> of America.
>
> America needs a national policy that understands we are threatened not
> just by gun barrels, but by oil barrels. The great treasury of jihadist
> terrorism is mideast oil. We fund both sides in the war on terror every
> time we fill up our gas tanks. We know how dependent we are on oil, but
> it's not just us. We must liberate the Middle East itself from the tyranny
> of dependence on petroleum so that the region no longer feeds restive and
> rising populations of unemployed young people a diet of illusions and
> rationalizations paid for by our oil money.
>
> Nothing will change if autocratic regimes keep pumping prosperity out of
> the ground to pay off a new generation with petrodollar welfare checks. We
> cannot change this if our oil money is sustaining the status quo. We must
> end the Empire of Oil.
>
> We can't allow Energy independence to be used as a mere slogan, it has to
> be a solution. We need a revolutionary set of new policies to promote
> alternative fuels on a crash basis. This is essential if we are to reverse
> the tide towards catastrophic global climate change; it is essential to
> making the United States a leader in vast new opportunities to develop and
> market clean energy technologies -- but most importantly, energy
> independence is essential to defeating jihadist terrorism and liberating
> our country from our bondage to tyrannical, hostile, and unstable regimes.
>
> In June -- here at Faneuil Hall -- I unveiled a comprehensive strategy to
> break our oil addiction. It begins with an aggressive goal: reduce U.S.
> oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels of oil a day by 2015.
>
> I envision an aggressive timeline to immediately expand the availability
> and production of renewable fuels and a new fleet of energy-efficient
> cars, trucks and SUVs. This strategy invests heavily in renewable energy
> and efficiency. By clearing the pathways to innovation, investing in our
> workers and infrastructure, and providing American consumers with broader
> choices, my energy plan will provide the tools to help move America
> forward, toward real energy security for the 21st Century.
>
> And to really make America safe, it is imperative that we reinforce our
> homeland defense-- starting by doing what should have begun two years ago,
> and fully implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. President
> Bush this week said that Osama bin Laden and the terrorists plan to target
> America's 'weak points.' Our weak points -- our borders, our chemical
> plants, our railways-- are weak because this administration has the wrong
> priorities. The President's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are not
> only unfair and unaffordable: they are taking from homeland security. What
> we have today from this White House is a pretense of national security on
> the cheap -- and it must end.
>
> We must rearm ourselves at home. Hurricane Katrina showed us in the most
> tragic way that the Department of Homeland Security is woefully unprepared
> to handle a natural disaster we know is coming a week in advance, let
> alone a catastrophic terrorist attack that takes America by surprise. In
> 2004, the 9/11 Commission concluded that the Bush Administration should
> distribute homeland security funding to cities and states based on risk.
> Yet the Commission's most recent report card gives the government an "F"
> because this Administration has cut homeland security funding for the
> states that need it most -- which happen to be blue states -- while
> distributing funds disproportionately to the red states that need it
> least. What should count here is the terrorist target list, not the
> Republican National Committees' political target list.
>
> To make America safe we must ensure the rapid development and deployment
> of reliable technologies to detect the secret transport of deadly
> materials. For $1.5 billion dollars -- less than is spent in a week in
> Iraq -- we could purchase the equipment to scan every cargo container
> bound for U.S. ports to ensure that it does not contain any weapons of
> mass destruction.
>
> At the same time, we must secure the most dangerous of all weapons at
> their source -- especially in the former Soviet Union -- where far too
> much nuclear material remains dangerously unprotected. We must enhance FBI
> counterterrorism capabilities at home-- an effort that is moving far too
> slowly because of a lack of urgency from this Administration.
>
> And we must put an end to Washington's continued inaction to secure our
> border. Border security backed by immigration reform is actually one area
> where sensible Democrats and Republicans have come together to forge a
> compromise. Unfortunately, this proposal has been held hostage to narrow
> right-wing political interests while our security hangs in the balance.
>
> We must -- and let me tell you no matter what the White House wants, the
> Congress will -- reconstitute the Bin Laden unit at the CIA, which the
> Administration inexplicably disbanded. Maybe they thought that if they
> weren't looking for Bin Laden, no one would notice that they weren't
> finding him.
>
> So these are four specific steps that will start us on the right path --
> but they alone will not win the war on terror.
>
> Most important, we need to make America be America again. We must restore
> our moral authority and global leadership by deploying the full arsenal of
> our national power with smarter diplomacy, stronger alliances, more
> effective international institutions -- and fidelity to the values we have
> always stood for as a nation.
>
> We must remember the great lesson of the Cold War when we led the world to
> confront a common threat. Genuine global leadership is a strategic
> imperative for America, not a favor we do for other countries. Leading the
> world's most advanced democracies isn't mushy multilateralism -- it
> amplifies America's voice, it extends our reach. Working through global
> institutions doesn't tie our hands -- it gives greater strength and
> legitimacy to our purposes and dampens the fear and resentment that our
> overwhelming power sometimes triggers in others.
>
> We need to strengthen international institutions, build alliances that
> amplify our power and extend the reach of our influence, and remember that
> even the most powerful nation on the face of the earth needs to make some
> friends on this planet.
>
> Leadership means talking with countries who aren't our friends. It means
> engaging directly when our vital national security interests are at
> stake -- even with countries that we strongly disagree with -- because
> treating dialogue as a means rather than an end can help us achieve our
> goals. As John Kennedy once said, "we must never negotiate out of fear but
> we must never fear to negotiate." If Richard Nixon could send Henry
> Kissinger to China, surely George Bush can send a real negotiating team to
> North Korea. If Ronald Reagan could talk to the evil empire, surely we can
> talk with Iran or Syria.
>
> We must start treating our moral authority as a precious national asset
> that does not limit our power but magnifies our influence. Only this week
> did the Administration finally recognize that the protections of the
> Geneva Convention had to be applied to prisoners in order to comply with
> the law, restore our moral authority, and best protect American troops.
> Let me say it plainly: No American president should be for torture before
> he's against it.
>
> Anyone who understood the conflict we face could never shrug off the
> imperative of winning the hearts and minds of Muslim moderates.
>
> We must start leading by example. We should never engage in or excuse
> violations of basic human rights. We must uphold the rule of law in our
> own conduct. And we should never accept official lying by our leaders. No
> White House should ever bully the Director of the CIA to make a case he
> knows isn't true -- and no White House should reward it with the Medal of
> Freedom.
>
> To restore our credibility with moderates in the Muslim world and to
> safeguard Israel's place in the world, we must renew the search for a
> lasting peace in the Middle East. We know from the hard lessons of the
> past that it won't be easy. But we know from the disasters of the present
> that it is essential.
>
> I've outlined five specific steps to make our nation safer which I believe
> stand in stark contrast to the Republicans' failed policies.
>
> So let's have a real debate. Let's give all of us -- Republicans and
> Democrats alike -- a real "accountability moment" this November.
>
> Let's stand up for what we believe. It is the only way to win. And it is
> the only way we will be worthy of winning.
>
> Let the President give his speeches attacking the patriotism of his fellow
> Americans. Let him play the politics of fear. As Democrats, we choose to
> offer a real plan to attack the terrorists and free Americans from fear.
>
> And then let the people decide.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------
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