Didn't see this in the news

As a subscriber to John Kerry's email list I am often hit with such amazing listserv whoppers as this one. It's too bad that Kerry's statements aren't really reported by the press, but here are a few things he had to say:

But we are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years. The first was against Saddam Hussein and his alleged weapons of mass destruction. The second was against Jihadist terrorists who the Administration said it was better "to fight over there than here." Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating civil war.

The "civil war" argument is thoroughly false. The number of Iraqis killed in violence daily would have to continue for 126 years to reach the level of murder under Saddam. It wasn't civil war then, and with a daily body count as the only proof, it isn't now either.

The Bush administration uses fear as a weapon against dissent. But you have the power to stand up to this new McCarthyism: show the depth and breadth of support for a timely withdrawal by co-sponsoring my Senate resolution now.

Are any of you afraid? I didn't think so. If the Right uses "unpatriotic" as a tactic, then the Left uses "McCarthyism!" and "don't be afraid of Bush!" just as often. In a world where no one really remembers McCarthy or what he did, and with movies like Goodnight, and Good Luck revising history, this label is surely meant to instill the idea of some sort of big brother-1984-fear mongering crap. That's why the McCarthy statement won't be reported by the AP.

Furthermore, I believe we must set a May 15th deadline for the Iraqis to form an effective unity government. And, if the Iraqi politicians choose to ignore that deadline, then I believe things will only get worse and we will have no choice but to withdraw immediately.

Coming from a party and a political ideology that says forcing Democracy on a country is foolhardy, how can Kerry think that imposing a deadline for the creation of said Democracy is anything less than ridiculous? I have a feeling my grad school colleagues, after arguing that working towards Democracy in Iraq is "ethnocentric," would jump on the "Democracy deadline" bandwagon. Simply amazing.

It's a wonder this guy didn't win the Presidency...