John Kerry: Sadr "Legitimate", Hamas and Hezbollah "sort of" Terrorist

[Shi Huangdi]

I have been predicting Nader might recieve a higher percentage of the vote in 2004 then in 2000. Kerry wants to see the Iraq War to it's conclusion and has not ruled out future pre-emptive attacks. The left-wing protestors on the street want an immediate end to the Iraq War and some degree of pacifism in our foreign policy. That's quite big a policy difference on an important issue that will translate for votes for Nader.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Drogue
I think the Economist summed up how was of thinking like this best. He thinks out load when asked questions. It seems quite obvious to me, reading what he said, that he's trying to say that while al-Sadr is a terrorist, the fact he has many supporters and sympathisers means we can't just ignore him. Yes, the fact he condone's violence against American troops is bad, but there are a lot of Iraqi's that don't want American troops there, and it is a popular voice. It can't just be ignored.

He did not say Hamas was a 'sort of' terrorist organisation, he said a newspaper that has started to align itself with Hamas is a sort of terrorist alignment. It's not the newspaper of Hamas, it's not directly terrorist, so he is correct, it is a sort of terrorist alignment. As for the term legitimate, he meant the voice of the newspaper, and then clarified that while legitimate was probably a little strong a term, it can't be ignored, and it does have support among groups of Iraqi's. Also, IIRC, it was considered legitimate until recently, before it aligned so much with Hamas.

He has flip-flopped, but when asked in an interview for a quick answer, he may think about it during the interview and realise the exact wording he used may not be the most appropriate, so go and further explain what it. It's just semantics. I wouldn't call this flip-flopping, I would call saying one thing to one group, then another thing to another group, as he did during the primaries, flip-flopping.

I support the closing of a newspaper that calls for attacks on US and Iraqi peacekeeping troops, but I agree with Kerry that you can't just ignore al-Sadr and hope his followers go away or see sense. What they've done is despicable, but ignoring them makes them more likely to attack again, to get out attention.

I agree completely.

[Dinner]

I hate Bush but I cannot vote for a person who is so stupid as to say Sadr is "ligitiment". Most of the Iraqis I've met hate him; hell, most of the Iraqi Shi'as I've met hate him. Most seem to realize the hell that religious hate mongers have made for the people of Iran and they want no part of it. They want democracy and western style rights they do not want armed thugs dictating to them as Saddam dicated to them.

[GePap]

Most American hate the Nazis-would you say a Nazi paper is inherently illegitimate? I won't go into the firt part.

[Dinner]

The thing that pisses me off most is that a half way decent candidate could destroy Bush in this election just like Bush was the born loser in the last election, however, the democratic party seems destined to nominate losers. Clinton was the first nonloser in 18 years and he's looking more and more like a fluke then a purposeful choice.

[MRT144]

he didnt say sadr was legitimate. he said the voice of the people who dont like america is legitimate.

are the green party not a legitimate voice in america? how about peta? fringe groups that dont reflect the majority arent illigitimate.

[GePap]

The election is 7 months away. I doubt this will make a huge dent on Kerry after the nasty short term drop Bush saw in the last week. Basically this will be up and down until November.

The democrats are deeply divided most of the time, with too many of it's good leaders in those "don;t get elected cause they are not white males" categories.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by GePap


The catch-22 of modern politics: silence no longer works-if a candidate isn't out 24-7 selling himself then the media starts *****ing about his being aloof and withdrawn and so forth. In the end, the media cares more about how a candidate does with the media, and the worst sin of all is to ignore the media or insult them, cause then the media gets mad.

conditions will likely worsen on all fronts, so he doesn't need to sell himself, he merely needs to say "I'm not Bush"

[GePap]

Everyone knows that. The Media won;t accept that. They need a story, and if you are not in the story with them, you will be in the story but you won't like it.

[The Mad Monk]

I agree this, in and of itself, won't make a huge dent in Kerry.

Kerry is letting me post so many of these threads, it won't have to.

[Capt Dizle]

Clearly Kerry doesn't understand that its not his job to think. His managers will let him know when he has an opinion. But, no, he has to react like he is actually going to try to be a real candidate. You'd almost swear the man thinks he'll actually govern the country if elected.

If this guy hadn't been born into money and married into even more, he'd be working in some small town as a building inspector.

[Tripledoc]

The speech of Hizbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on the tenth day of Ashoura-13-3-2003

It is incumbent upon all Muslims to highly appreciate the position of the church every where in the world, the Catholic church and the Orthodox church and the position of the Syrian and Lebanese cardinals. The Muslims must appreciate those positions because the importance of those positions is that they strip off the religious title of the Bush war who he said wants to realize the whishes of the bible. Through this position the church aimed at saying that your war is neither legitimate nor moral and has nothing to do with the principles of the Bible. I advise all Muslims and the orators to avoid any word that might harm the feeling of the Christians.

According to the BBC:

While, the US listed the group as a terrorist organisation, the government in Beirut declared it a national resistance movement.

This means to me that the Orthodox church, the Catholic church, British State television, The Lebanese State and as formerly mentioned the European Union, and by refering to the UN condemnations of Israeli aggression, even the World Community, - does not dissociate itself from the legitimate right of Hezbollah to fight an armed struggle to maintain and preserve Lebanese sovereignty.

[Uncle Sparky]

The CBC interviewed a member of the US appointed Iraqi council yesterday. He said that Sadr is an important regional leader and should be brought into the political process. His group has been working to restore utilities and order, but do not want to work with the American overlords.

Of course he is a militant Islamist so the US want to brand him a criminal , exclude him and preferably kill him.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Re: Speaking of Hypocrisy ...

Originally posted by Adam Smith
That's mighty fancy footwork Tripledoc ...

Adam, It would be more fruitful to discuss good and evil with Satan, than to discuss terrorism with Tripledoc.

[Sovereign]

I predict democracy will collapse in this century.

Reasons:

1. People are becoming more and more ignorant of the voting system.

2. People don't do anything to fix corruption and greed in politics.

3. Only two parties (Dems and Reps) that can garner the votes to win. No chance for third, fourth, fifth, etc. parties to compete for 50% of the vote.

4. Millionaires will always be elected in a democracy due to advertising and puppy-dogging with the media.

There are several more, but can't think how to put them down here.


This is why I believe a Technocracy government from Civ: Call to Power would be much better than a democracy.

Why?

Government run by skilled technicians. This will result in more focus on domestic matters, improve infrastructure, improve technology, etc.

No more lame ass millionaires or wealthy leaders.

Give leadership to the people who ACTUALLY know what they're doing. Leadership for people who ACTUALLY has talents in domestic and technological issues.

I can list a lot of benefits of this kind of government.