Kucinich on Iraq and Iran

Kucinich was interviewed by Truthdig.

Today, it was announced that 2,000 more Marines are being sent to Anbar province—a place which was already declared “lost” for the purposes of military occupation. Why are we sacrificing our young men and women? Why are we keeping them in an impossible situation? Why are we stoking a civil war with our continued presence? We have to take a new direction in Iraq, and that direction is out.
Now, there are many plans out there. The people talking about phased redeployment, the president as the commander in chief ultimately has the authority to determine the placement of troops. Congress’ real authority, and Congress’ constitutional [mandate] as a co-equal branch of government, requires that it be heard from, and I believe that Congress must exercise its authority to protect the troops by bringing them home. And the only way we can do that effectively is to vote against supplemental appropriations—which has kept the war going, or to vote against appropriation bills which fund the war. That’s Congress’ ultimate power—the power of the purse.
If we truly care about our troops, we’ll get them out. It’s the phoniest argument to say that a cut-off of funds will leave troops stranded in the field. There’s always money in the pipeline to pay for an orderly withdrawal. But those who favor continuing the war or escalating the war are using the troops as a tool to further policies that are against the interests of the troops, against the interests of [the] American people, and against the interests of peace in the world.

Concerning Iran, I hope Kucinich is correct:

I think the Democratic control of Congress makes it more difficult for the president to pursue a policy which leads to military conflict with Iran. This president would have to come to Congress for approval for any action, and if he decides to take action without the support of Congress, I think he would find himself at a serious constitutional disadvantage. I do not believe that the administration has made a case for any type of attack on Iran. As a matter of fact, it’s urgent that we engage Iran in diplomacy. It’s urgent that we bring both Iran and Syria to the negotiating table—not only for the purposes of resolving issues with respect to those countries, but for the purposes of setting the stage for a broader peace agreement in the entire region, including peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. We need a whole new approach, which is based on a belief, a confidence that we can use what Franklin Roosevelt called the science of human relations—diplomacy—to resolve our differences. We must reject this administration’s all-too-easy recourse towards military power and consequent rejection of diplomacy.

Words of wisdom and sanity do waft through the halls of Congress.