I worked extensively for John Edwards during the primaries in 2004. I felt he had the best message, but I mistakenly felt he was the best candidate to deliver it. In focus groups, the "gravitas" issue came up repeatedly, and I was forced to admit, eventually, the primary voters were right. Kerry came off as more substantive, despite the caclkes from friends from Massachusetts who knew Kerry and found this ironic, to put it mildly.
Yesterday/Today, in an amazing "mea cupla" Op-Ed, John Edwards finds the magnificent voice I had presumed to lie within himself. Edwards eviscerates Bush, Cheney and the Republicans.
Excerpts below:
By JOHN EDWARDS
I WAS wrong.
=Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told ≈ and what many of us believed and argued ≈ was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda.
It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake ≈ the men and women of our armed forces and their families ≈ have performed heroically and paid a dear price.
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George Bush won't accept responsibility for his mistakes. Along with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he has made horrible mistakes at almost every step: failed diplomacy; not going in with enough troops; not giving our forces the equipment they need; not having a plan for peace.
Because of these failures, Iraq is a mess and has become a far greater threat than it ever was. It is now a haven for terrorists, and our presence there is draining the good will our country once enjoyed, diminishing our global standing. It has made fighting the global war against terrorist organizations more difficult, not less.
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First, we need to remove the image of an imperialist America from the landscape of Iraq. American contractors who have taken unfair advantage of the turmoil in Iraq need to leave Iraq. If that means Halliburton subsidiary KBR, then KBR should go. Such departures, and the return of the work to Iraqi businesses, would be a real statement about our hopes for the new nation.
We also need to show Iraq and the world that we will not stay there forever. We've reached the point where the large number of our troops in Iraq hurts, not helps, our goals. Therefore, early next year, after the Iraqi elections, when a new government has been created, we should begin redeployment of a significant number of troops out of Iraq.
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Second, this redeployment should work in concert with a more effective training program for Iraqi forces. We should implement a clear plan for training and hard deadlines for certain benchmarks to be met. To increase incentives, we should implement a schedule showing that, as we certify Iraqi troops as trained and equipped, a proportional number of U.S. troops will be withdrawn.
Third, we must launch a serious diplomatic process that brings the world into this effort. We should bring Iraq's neighbors and our key European allies into a diplomatic process to get Iraq on its feet. The president needs to create a unified international front.
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