Webb commits to Senate run
According to the Times Dispatch, former Navy Secretary and author James H. Webb will be seeking the Virginia Democratic nomination for US Senate. A potential challenge to George Allen's seemingly charmed and GOP-determined rise from the senate to the Presidency? Perhaps. Took a quick glance at Webb's site and am hoping to learn more in the days ahead. One speech I found particularly intriguing begins:
It pains me to point this out, but in my view the United States invasion of Iraq was one of the most ill-advised and reckless actions that the US government has ever taken. I make this statement not as a knee-jerk anti-war activist, but as one who still proudly defends our effort in Vietnam, and who has spent a total of five years inside the Pentagon.
We should start with the premise that a unilateral war - a war in which a country attacks another when it has not been itself attacked - must be undertaken only when the country's national survival is clearly at stake, or under circumstances where the international community is so threatened that a strong power such as the US must save it from an enormous menace. Iraq clearly did not meet either of those tests.
Additionally, I find it regrettable that the Bush administration squandered an historic opportunity to unify most of the world against the notion of organized international terrorism, and through its relentless pursuit of war against Iraq created instead an era of unprecedented bad feelings. The present administration accomplished this through a puzzling campaign of arrogance and condescension toward long-time allies, and by completely redefining the war against terrorism until it became a war against Iraq.
Clearly written, authoritative, and (am I dreaming) willing to address specific failings of policy while also pointing out the destructive psychology of the current administration. The writer of this might be a US Senator from Virginia?! More investigating of his positions is warranted before I begin dancing in the streets, but man, it's good to have some hope.
It pains me to point this out, but in my view the United States invasion of Iraq was one of the most ill-advised and reckless actions that the US government has ever taken. I make this statement not as a knee-jerk anti-war activist, but as one who still proudly defends our effort in Vietnam, and who has spent a total of five years inside the Pentagon.
We should start with the premise that a unilateral war - a war in which a country attacks another when it has not been itself attacked - must be undertaken only when the country's national survival is clearly at stake, or under circumstances where the international community is so threatened that a strong power such as the US must save it from an enormous menace. Iraq clearly did not meet either of those tests.
Additionally, I find it regrettable that the Bush administration squandered an historic opportunity to unify most of the world against the notion of organized international terrorism, and through its relentless pursuit of war against Iraq created instead an era of unprecedented bad feelings. The present administration accomplished this through a puzzling campaign of arrogance and condescension toward long-time allies, and by completely redefining the war against terrorism until it became a war against Iraq.
Clearly written, authoritative, and (am I dreaming) willing to address specific failings of policy while also pointing out the destructive psychology of the current administration. The writer of this might be a US Senator from Virginia?! More investigating of his positions is warranted before I begin dancing in the streets, but man, it's good to have some hope.
posted by Southern Bellow at 9:57 AM
