Former President Carter praised Democrat Howard Dean on Sunday for his "courageous and outspoken" stands -- in particular his steadfast opposition to the Iraq war -- but the 39th president stopped short of an endorsement on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.
Dean's steadfast opposition, courtesy of Kucinich:
Sept. 23, 2002, DEAN -- Might Endorse Pre-Emptive Strike
Dean gives a waffling endorsement of President Bush's pre-emptive war:
"Pre-emption is not off the table, but the moral high ground does matter," he says, as quoted in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. The paper reports that Dean "also said he would endorse a pre-emptive strike against Iraq if it can be proven that Saddam Hussein has access to weapons of mass destruction and the means to discharge them."
Sept. 29, 2002, DEAN -- "If You Don't Do This...We Will Go Into Iraq"
On CBS "Face the Nation": After saying that the administration "had not yet made" its case that Saddam was an immediate threat, and that if we attack Iraq, "it's got to be gone about in a very different way," Dean also states: "It's very simple. Here's what we ought to have done. We should have gone to the UN Security Council. We should have asked for a resolution to allow the inspectors back in with no pre-conditions. And then we should have given them a deadline, saying, 'If you don't do this, say, within 60 days, we will reserve our right as Americans to defend ourselves and we will go into Iraq.'"
February 19, 2003 DEAN -- Unilateral Action Is...Unavoidable Choice
Salon's Jake Tapper summarizes Dean's oft-repeated position on attacking Iraq: "Saddam must be disarmed, but with a multilateral force under the auspices of the United Nations. If the U.N. in the end chooses not to enforce its own resolutions, then the U.S. should give Saddam 30 to 60 days to disarm, and if he doesn't, unilateral action is a regrettable, but unavoidable, choice."
August 12, 2003, DEAN -- "We Cannot Leave Iraq"
"I think it was a mistake to go into Iraq in the long run. Now that we're there, we're stuck there, and the administration has no plan for how to deal with it, and we cannot leave because losing the peace is not an option. We cannot leave Iraq" (Buchanan & Press, MSNBC)
The two men joined worshippers at the 131-member Marantha [sic] Baptist Church in Carter's home town of Plains, Ga., where Carter teaches Sunday school most weeks, and afterward the former president introduced Dean as "my friend, our visitor and a fellow Christian."
Hmmm. Not enough of a friend to endorse him?
Carter's lesson was on integrity and he taught from the book of Job, which Dean recently said was his favorite book of the Bible.
That's not exactly what he said. ;)
Dean missed 24 hours of campaigning in Iowa to make this little trip. Very poor timing and what did he gain?
Posted by floridacracker at January 18, 2004 03:26 PM