Posted on 05/30/2008 1:23:32 PM PDT by jakerobins
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) believes that on September 11 "we were basically at peace."
Asked to clarify his remarks, specifically asking about the attacks on the U.S.S. Cole during Barack Obama campaign conference call, Kerry said, "well, we hadn't declared war," The Hill's Sam Youngman reports.
Asked if al Qaeda was a threat at the time, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee said, "well yes, obviously they were a threat. But, fundamentally we were not at war at that point in time."
Kerry also called John McCain "out of step with history and facts."
(Excerpt) Read more at briefingroom.thehill.com ...
Amen to that, brother.
And IMHO, American Leftists are not that much different from their Eurasian buddies (ever had your car keyed, or your tires slashed, for posting anything non-Leftist-non-PR on your bumper?). To the Leftists, it's a punishable crime, and they've appointed themselves the 'legal' judges & executioners.). IMO, you're better off trusting your kids & your life savings with a random stranger, than with a D@mocrat...
If one ignores Osama's 1098 declaration of war against us, along with the 1979 Iranian declaration of war and Saddam's blatant disregard of the settlement agreements he made after GW I and his attempt to kill GHWB. Then there were the embassy attacks and the Cole. Oh yeah, there was World Trade Center I as well.
If you push all the above out of your mind, then Kerry makes some sense. John would make such a good Zen Master -- He can clear his mind of everything so quickly and completely. At the same time, he is able to speak and make major pronouncements. Just Wow!!
Actually, we were at war with Iraq on Sept. 11. Remember, the Iraqi government agreed to abide by the Gulf War cease fire, but proceeded to break it repeatedly by shooting missiles at our aircraft in the no fly zones (remember those).
Under these conditions, the cease fire was voided by Saddam and the orignal authorization from Congrees stands (I don’t believe it was ever repealed). We were at war.
By Kerry’s logic, we were still “at peace” with Japan while they were blowing our ships out of the water on 12/7/41. Congress didn’t declare war until the next day. Were we “at peace” between the attack and that time? The ghosts of the 2000+ dead at Pearl Harbor would likely take issue with that “nuanced” view.
If September 11th 2001 was “peace,” I’m glad we are at war.
Interviewer: Thank You.
Kerry: Thank you? Thank you for what?
Interviewer: For confirming something that I and everybody outside the state of Massachusetts has known for years?
Kerry: Yes?
Interviewer: You Are An Idiot!
Kerry: “We were at Peace before we weren’t at Peace.”
"well, we hadn't declared war,"
Our "esteemed" Congress Critters haven't had the cajones to declare war since WW 2.
The rats were claiming after 9/11 that Clinton had a war plan ready to go for Bush to follow that should have been put into effect before 9/11 but Bush was too partisan to accept it.
Jon Carry was supposedly a distinguished (sic) US Senator throughout the Clinton years into the Bush years, yet he was/is completely clueless about what was happening. Just to give one example, George Tenet (whatever his failings the following is an accurate description of items ANYONE in Congress ought to be concerned about) described the following to Congress in 2002:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/101702tenet.html
[from CIA Director George Tenet’s 2002 statement to Congress]:
In 1998, I told key leaders at CIA and across the Intelligence Community that we should consider ourselves “at war” with Usama Bin Ladin. I ordered that no effort or resource be spared in prosecuting this war. In early 1999, I ordered a baseline review of CIA’s operational strategy against Bin Ladin.
In spring 1999, CTC produced a new comprehensive operational plan of attack against the Bin Ladin/al-Qa’ida target inside and outside Afghanistan.
* This new strategy was previewed to senior CIA management by the end of July 1999. By mid-September, it had been briefed to CIA operational level personnel, and to NSA, the FBI, and other partners.
* CIA then began to put in place the elements of this operational strategy, which structured the Agency’s counterterrorist activity until September 11th, 2001.
[Tenet’s description of the build-up of Al Qaeda’s war on America]:
* In July 1996, Bin Ladin described the killing of Americans in the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in June 1996 as the beginning of a war between Muslims and the United States.
* One month later, in August 1996, Bin Ladin issued a religious edict or fatwa entitled “Declaration of War,” authorizing attacks against Western military targets on the Arabian Peninsula.
* In February 1998, six months prior to the US Embassy bombings in East Africa, al-Qa’ida—under the banner of the “World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders”—issued another fatwa stating that all Muslims have a religious duty “to kill Americans and their allies, both civilian and military” worldwide.
By the time of the 1998 East Africa bombings, al-Qa’ida had established its intention to inflict mass casualties and a modus operandi emphasizing careful planning and exhaustive field preparations, which Bin Ladin saw as a prerequisite for the type of spectacular operations he had in mind.
* For example, when asked in a November 1996 interview why his organization had not yet conducted attacks in response to its August fatwa statement, Bin Ladin replied, “If we wanted to carry out small operations, it would have been easy to do so after the statements, but the nature of the battle requires qualitative operations that affect the adversary, which obviously requires good preparation.”
The East Africa bombings in August 1998 and the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 succeeded because of al-Qa’ida’s meticulous preparation and effective security practices.
* CIA analysts looked at captured al-Qa’ida targeting studies and training materials around the time of the East Africa and USS Cole attacks. They published an in-depth intelligence study of al-Qa’ida’s terrorist operations that revealed that much of the terrorists’ advance planning involved careful, patient, and meticulous preparation.
Beyond the conventional threat, we were also becoming increasingly concerned—and therefore stepped up our warning—about al-Qa’ida’s interest in acquiring unconventional weapons, not only chemical or biological elements, but nuclear materials as well.
* In a December 1998 interview, Bin Ladin called the acquisition of these weapons a “religious duty” and noted, “How we would use them is up to us.”
* We reported in 1998 that an extremist associated with Al-Qa’ida said Bin Ladin was seeking a “Hiroshima.”
Best comment over there!
“Obama - 57 States;
Heinz - 57 varieties;
Kerry -57 IQ
Comment by kelvin “
HEINZ KERRY: You know, it's very interesting. I landed at National Airport less than 12 hours before, coming from Pennsylvania, where I was doing a prescription drugs thing -- meeting. And I came in from Pittsburgh, landed at National, and that's the last time I landed at National for quite a while.
KING: How'd you hear about it?
HEINZ KERRY: I was at home in Washington. I had just come in and I got a call...
KERRY: I think I called.
HEINZ KERRY: And they said, look at the TV. I looked at the TV and I couldn't believe it.
KING: Where were you?
KERRY: I was in the Capitol. We'd just had a meeting -- we'd just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle's office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation.
HEINZ KERRY: You walked out with John McCain, didn't you?
KERRY: Yes.
KING: You and what?
HEINZ KERRY: He and John walked out together.
KING: He and John McCain walked out -- what did you think?
Did you think...
(CROSSTALK)
KERRY: I knew instantaneously...
KING: Clinton said he though bin Laden.
KERRY: I knew instantaneously with the first. I'm a pilot, and I looked at the weather, and it's what we call in pilot lingo CAVU, ceiling and visibility unlimited. And I knew that that plane did not fly into that building accidentally, as people were speculating. It just doesn't happen, could not, under those circumstances. So I knew it was deliberate, whether it was suicide, whether it was something -- I couldn't tell. When the second plane hit, it was obvious to the world.
And as we went out of the building, my immediately feeling was, we're at war. I mean, that was the sense, that we are under attack. People are attacking the United States of America and we needed to respond.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/08/lkl.00.html
LOL yea that’s a good one
Which 'original authorization from Congress' was that? Just wondering...
;>)
This war began in Somalia in 1993 because GHWB didn’t finish off Saddam in 1991.
We looked like the weak horse.
Idiot opens mouth and inserts foot once again. Lying, cheating, whore of a communist.
We were at peace. Those guys were having their morning coffee and on the spur of the moment, decided, “Hey, let’s call some buddies and see if they want to crash some airplanes.”
And on Sep 12 we were “basically, kindasorta” at ‘war’.
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