Letter from Dennis Kucinich

An Open Letter to Howard Dean
By Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
The Nation

Tuesday 03 May 2005

Dear Chairman Dean,

Speaking before an ACLU crowd last week in Minnesota, the home state of Paul
Wellstone, you were quoted as saying, "Now that we're there [in Iraq], we're
there and we can't get out.... I hope the President is incredibly successful with
his policy now." Did these words really come from the same man who claimed
to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, and who had recently campaigned
on the antiwar theme? What's changed?

Perhaps you now believe that an electoral victory for Democrats in 2006 and
beyond requires sweeping this war under the rug. If so, you are only the latest
in a long line of recent Democratic leaders who chose a strategy of letting "no
light show" between Democrats and the President on the war. Emphasize the economy,
instead, they advised, in 2002 and again in 2004.

Following this advice has kept us in the minority. During the 2002 election
cycle, when Democrats felt they had historical precedent on their side (the President's
party always loses seats in the midterm election), the Democratic leadership in
Congress cut a deal with the President to bring the war resolution to a vote, and
appeared with him in a Rose Garden ceremony. The "no light" strategy yielded
a historic result: For the first time since Franklin Roosevelt, a President increased
his majorities in both houses of Congress during a recession.

The President went into the 2004 election with tremendous vulnerability on the
war, which the Democratic Party again sacrificed: by avoiding the issue of withdrawal
from Iraq in the party platform, omitting it from campaign speeches and deleting
it from the national convention.

Why does failure surely follow from sweeping the war and occupation under the
rug? Because the war is one of the most potent political scandals of all time, and
it has energized grassroots activity like few others.

President Bush led the country into war based on false information, falsified
threats and a fictitious estimate of the consequences. His war and the continuing
occupation transformed Iraq into a training ground for jihadists who want to hunt
Americans, and a cause célèbre for stoking resentment in the Muslim world. His
war and occupation squandered the abundant good will felt by the world for America
after our losses of September 11. He enriched his cronies at Halliburton and other
private interests through the occupation. And he diverted our attention and abilities
away from apprehending the masterminds of the September 11 attack; instead, we are
mired in occupation. The President's war and occupation in Iraq has already cost
$125 billion, nearly 1,600 American lives, more than 11,000 American casualties
and the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis. The occupation has been more costly
in this regard than the war.

There is no end in sight for the occupation of Iraq. The President says we will
stay until we're finished. A recent report by the Congressional Research Service
concluded that the United States is probably building permanent military bases in
Iraq. The President refuses to consider an exit strategy. The Republican Congress
gives the President whatever he asks for.

We can draw no clearer distinction with the President than over this war. He
cannot right a wrong (unjustified war) by perpetuating a military occupation. Military
victory there is not possible. General Tommy Franks concedes that. The war will
end when we say it's over. The Democratic leadership should be pressing for quick
withdrawal of all troops from Iraq.

That's what most Democrats want, too. Your performance in the early stages of
the primary, and your recent chairmanship of the party, were made possible by many,
many progressive and liberal Democrats. It was their hope and expectation that you
would prevent the party from repeating its past drift to the Republican-lite center.
They hoped that this time the party would not abandon them or its core beliefs again.

Yet you say that you hope the President succeeds. With no pressure exerted from
the leadership of the Democratic Party, the past threatens to repeat itself in 2006.
We may not leave Iraq or our minority status in Washington for a long time to come.

Dennis J. Kucinich