http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/?pid=223742
Kucinich Sounds the Alarm
John Nichols
Dennis Kucinich may not be a front runner in the race for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
But the congressman from Cleveland has succeeded in distinguishing himself
from the other contenders when it comes to speaking those truths that are
self-evident.
And in an era of mass delusion and denial on the party of leaders in both
major political parties, stating the obvious can be a radical act.
Such is the case with Kucinich's appropriate answer to the latest move by
the Bush-Cheney administration to ramp up hostilities with Iran. That
move -- the unprecedented attempt to label Iran's 125,000-strong
Republican
Guard as a "specially designated global terrorist" group -- is, as the
congressman says "nothing more than an attempt to deceive Americans into
yet
another war -- this time with Iran."
No one who has paid even the slightest attention to the Bush-Cheney
administration's approach to Middle East affairs can doubt that Kucinich
is
right. Yet, his is a lonely voice of clarity amid the din of Democratic
obfuscation that aids and abets this White House's worst instincts.
"The belligerent Bush Administration is using this pending designation to
convince the American public into accepting that a war with Iran is
inevitable," argues Kucinich.
"This designation will set the stage for more chaos in the region because
it
undercuts all of our diplomatic efforts," he adds. explaining that, "This
new label provides further evidence for Iran's leaders that there is no
point to engage in diplomatic talks with the United States if our actions
point directly to regime change."
Delivering the response that should be coming from New York Senator
Hillary
Clinton ?, Illinois Senator Barack Obama ? and especially from Delaware
Senator Joe Biden, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when
he
isn't campaigning for president, Kucinich argued that, "Our nation is
better
served by demanding sensible and responsible diplomatic foreign policy
initiatives from the Bush Administration."
Kucinich, who has proposed impeaching Vice President Cheney for
continually
prodding the country toward an unnecessary war with Iran, may not get the
political credit he deserves for calling out this administration. But
history will recognize him as the man who sounded the alarm when the Bush
administration moved America closer to the brink of disaster.
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John Nichols' new book is THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT: The Founders' Cure
for
Royalism. Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson hails it as a "nervy, acerbic,
passionately argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich examination
of the parliamentary roots and past use of the 'heroic medicine' that is
impeachment with a call for Democratic leaders to 'reclaim and reuse the
most vital tool handed to us by the founders for the defense of our most
basic liberties.'"
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