"Robert F. Kennedy" by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/robert-f-kennedy_b_45025.html

<snip>

In 1968, my father, running for President, addressed in a speech, the White House's proposal for a troop surge in Vietnam. Robert Kennedy had initially supported the U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Forty years later, as Congress and the White House debate the further escalation of yet another war that has already claimed the lives of an astounding 640,000 Iraqis, killed 3,256 U.S. soldiers and wounded another 50,000, his words should have special resonance to those of our political leaders who are still searching for the right course in Iraq:

I do not want--as I believe most Americans do not want--to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that we are acting as if no other nations existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United States or the cause of peace in the world. I am concerned that, at the end of it all, there will only be more Americans killed; more of our treasure spilled out; and because of the bitterness and hatred on every side of this war, more hundreds of thousands of slaughtered; so they may say, as Tacitus said of Rome: "They made a desert, and called it peace." . . .

"The reversals of the last several months have led our military to ask for more troops. This weekend, it was announced that some of them--a "moderate" increase, it was said--would soon be sent. But isn't this exactly what we have always done in the past? If we examine the history of this conflict, we find the dismal story repeated time after time. Every time--at every crisis--we have denied that anything was wrong; sent more troops; and issued more confident communiques. Every time, we have been assured that this one last step would bring victory. And every time, the predictions and promises have failed and been forgotten, and the demand has been made again for just one more step up the ladder. But all the escalations, all the last steps, have brought us no closer to success than we were before. . . . And once again the President tells us, as we have been told for twenty years, that "we are going to win"; "victory" is coming. . . . It becoming more evident with every passing day that the victories we achieve will only come at the cost of the destruction for the nation we once hoped to help. . . .

"Let us have no misunderstanding. are a brutal enemy indeed. Time and time again, they have shown their willingness to sacrifice innocent civilians, to engage in torture and murder and despicable terror to achieve their ends. This is a war almost without rules or quarter. There can be no easy moral answer to this war, no one-sided condemnation of American actions. What we must ask ourselves is whether we have a right to bring so much destruction to another land, without clear and convincing evidence that this is what its people want. But that is precisely the evidence we do not have. . . .

<snip>

[ddeclue]

1. I would like to recommend the book "The Gospel According to RFK"

to everyone.

k&r.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[IChing]

2. Powerful and the last part in Robert Kennedy's Jr. words.

"You are the people, as President Kennedy said, who have
"the least ties to the present and the greatest ties to the future."

I urge you to learn the harsh facts that lurk behind the mask of official illusion
with which we have concealed our true circumstances, even from ourselves.

Our country is in danger: not just from foreign enemies; but above all, from our misguided policies
--and what they can do to the nation that Thomas Jefferson once told us was the last, best hope of man.

There is a contest on, not for the rule of America, but for the heart of America. . . .

I ask you to go forth and work for new policies--work to change our direction--and thus restore our place at the point of moral leadership, in our country, in our hearts, and all around the world."

on edit
I just posted this in the editorial section about the same time.

[IChing]

3. I listen to his program on Air America on the weekends (ring of fire)

He knows what is really going on in this nation
and is not blind to the fact that the fascist have taken control.

He has even used that word many times on the program to describe
and explain who is really running the power structures of this nation.

[DFW]

4. Ring of Fire

I have chatted a few times with him and Mike on Ring of Fire.
Along with Thom Hartmann, they have the most interesting topics,
the best discussions, and the best guests (NOT including me! LOL).

Bobby does his father's memory proud.

[Glenda]

5. kick

:kick:

[OneBlueSky]

6. the more things change, the more they remain the same . . . n/t

.