Wartime Dissent Is Part Of Patriotism, Kerry Says

Washington Post ^ | April 23, 2006 | Chris Cillizza

[West Coast Conservative]

Thirty-five years after Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry (D) appeared before a Senate committee to call for an end to the war in Vietnam, he defended that decision yesterday in a speech in his home town and linked it to his current insistence on an early drawdown of troops from Iraq.

Kerry, in remarks delivered in Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace, cast dissent in wartime as a patriotic act -- a response to Republican critics who insist that questioning the conduct of the war in Iraq emboldens America's enemies.

"I believed then, just as I believe now, that it is profoundly wrong to think that fighting for your country overseas and fighting for your country's ideals at home are contradictory or even separate duties," he said. "They are, in fact, two sides of the very same patriotic coin."

Yesterday's address was the latest move in Kerry's shadow presidential campaign, launched in the aftermath of his 2004 defeat by President Bush. In a series of speeches, guest columns and television appearances, Kerry has sought to right what many Democrats regard as the defects of that race by outlining a clear exit strategy for Iraq and vowing to fight back against GOP attacks on his and other Democrats' patriotism. Kerry's aggressive attitude is also aimed at wooing liberal voters for a potential presidential bid in 2008.

Beginning last fall, Kerry has advocated setting a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Recently, he said that if an Iraqi government is not formed by May 15, the United States should immediately withdraw its forces.

"If Iraqis aren't willing to build a unity government in the five months since the election, they're probably not willing to build one at all," Kerry said.

[jmaroneps37]

Please frenchie, please just keep saying stuff like this.

[NewLand]