Howard Dean Quotes
Someone earlier made a remark about losing 500 soldiers and 2,200 wounded in Iraq. Those soldiers were sent there by the vote of Sen. Lieberman, Sen. Edwards and Sen. Kerry. I think that is a serious matter.
Dean, Howard. Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate. Greenville, SC, 29 Jan. 2004.
This statement was made in the first phase of the Iraq war where Cheney and President Bush thought the war was won. After that there were thousands of Americans killed in the war. Critics of the administration war policy threw this quotation up to him.
Berger was actually prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to 20 years in prison, for this editorial. The House refused to seat him after the 1918 election (see {587981}); his constituents re-elected him in 1920 anyway. Finally the Supreme Court overturned his conviction, and he was again seated in Congress.
All deceased American troops who were killed in the Middle East were returned to the mortuary unit at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, In previous wars the press had access to the mortuary and showed pictures of the flag draped caskets returning. However in the Iraq War, the administration, trying to deemphasize the high American death toll of troops, made Dover off limits to the press and made all the processes secret. However, the exact number of casualties and their identities became known through other sources and the media ran photo of the deceased.
Annan had asked UN nations to contribute troops but few would.
At the time, the Russians and the Nazis had a pact and were allies so the Russians did not want the U.S. in the war. When the Russians changed sides, the Communist party line reversed itself and military of other aid to Russia was advocated as well as direct entry into the war. See {598503} for additional communist slogans of the day.
Contrast Hoover's complaining tone with John F. Kennedy's quote on the subject.
His balanced judgment and concern for American Casualties changed during the Iraq War over a decade later where he insisted on taking steady American casualties even after Saddam had been deposed and American troops were in the middle of a sectarian civil war.
The General had differed with the George W. Bush Administration neoconservatives over the strategy regarding the invasion and war in Iraq. He was pushed out of office as a result. Later, it was clear that he was right originally, and the press, some members of Congress and others wanted him to comment. He refused.
The George W. Bush Administration told Congress and the people of the world that Iraq had developed weapons of mass destruction and were about to deploy them. We invaded Iraq and it turned out that there were no WMD’s in Iraq. No one knows if the all in the administration honestly believed the intelligence, how many doubted it, and how many others suppressed contradictory evidence of which there was much. Some members of the administration wanted an invasion of Iraq for other reasons, personal and economic.
Howard Brush Dean III is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as Governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 2009. Dean was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election. His implementation of the fifty-state strategy as head of the DNC is credited with the Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Afterward, he became a political commentator and consultant to McKenna Long & Aldridge, a law and lobbying firm.
