It’s nice to hear your voice again. I was one of thousands who marched in Washington DC against the war in Iraq. Millions across the world also protested. But it didn’t matter to the politicians here. Their “shock and awe” displayed for us on TV was horrifying, unforgettable and unforgivable.
Thank you, Francine, for being in DC then. I organized an opposition rally in northern NH, where I was at the time, to alert everyone to the fallacies involved and try to stop that heinous war.
I watching operation Shock and Awe on a McDonald's tv screen, while on lunch break from public school. It was scary to see a country get bombed from a camera using night vision. 9/11 was scary enough, my thought was "oh shit, this is war!?" . I was fixated on the screen, feeling helpless.
Great summary of a criminal tragedy for which, so far, no one has been held accountable. When crimes are committed without consequence, repetition is likely.
Dennis, I supported you financially and wholeheartedly during your presidential run.During your whole career in Ohio you were never afraid to speak truth to power. Then came that fateful day when your vote alone stood between Obamacare or no Obamacare. Up until that day you had been wholeheartedly against the plan. I told everyone I knew that you would not crack and I believed it but I was wrong. So I didn’t read this whole article because I know you write well I know you do your research well but action does speak louder than words. Getting Obamacare through was crucial to his career. He along with Clinton as his secretary of state destroyed Libya he also sent drones to the Middle East to indiscriminately kill people who are on his list. As well if Obamacare hadn’t gone through it might have forced a return to looking at national healthcare which you always adamantly supported. There are some of us around who still remember. 
Obama also allowed another war to begin----a financial one. Where the crooked bankers went scot-free while 18,000,000 foreclosures with forged documents were allowed to happen. Obama and the Democrats following made me into a person who proudly displays a "Don't Tread on Me" flag.
Thank you for this well-written attempt to refresh the memories of the American people. As the drums were beating louder and louder for the Iraq invasion, I was singing at peace rallies in Seattle. Once the invasion took place on March 19, 2003, people went home feeling distraught and powerless. I greatly appreciate all your efforts over the years, Dennis Kucinich. I supported you then and I support you now. We need the political will for peace - for people to finally see peace as what it is: Practical and Patriotic. As a progressive Democrat, over the years, I have been so frustrated listening to politicians including Hillary Clinton using language that was clearly pushing for wars with Russia and China. That is reckless and extremely dangerous to the American public and to the world. It made me sick to see Joe BIden joyfully put a 'Liberty Medal' around the neck of war criminal George W. Bush in 2018.
We need a strong political voice for peace. We haven't had that voice or that wisdom since JFK was assassinated. On June 10, 1963, JFK delivered a commencement address at American University that has become known as his 'peace speech'. The transcript and video of that speech are online. I encourage everyone to read and/or listen to it. His remarks are as relevant and needed today as they were just after the Cuban missile crisis. This June 10 will be the 60th anniversary of that speech and I hope there will be many events marking that anniversary and revisiting what JFK was telling the American public, and the youth of that time inheriting a heavy burden. Despite our efforts for accountability, war criminals continue to run free in our country to this very day.
Sharon, it brought tears to my eyes to think that someone was singing peace songs during Bush’s “ shock and awe”. I remember going to work that day with feelings of trepidation that the invasion would actually take place and no one at work seem to even be aware of it. I remember people in the Bush administration talking about how the Iraqis would be throwing flowers at the American soldiers feet as they arrived to free them from Saddam. which brings to mind another fallen hero Clayton Powell holding up the fake vial of anthrax to symbolize Saddam‘s weapons of mass destruction which never existed used to justify the invasion to begin with. Thank you for the reminder of John F Kennedy‘s peace speech which also always brings tears to my eyes I hope if anyone is sitting around today with nothing to do Who cares about peace that they look that up today and read it. Nice to know that anybody who ever spoke for our country used such words and had such a noble concepts and intentions. Also of note is that investigations into his assassination were the source of the CIA coining the term conspiracy theory.
Hi Cynthia, thanks for your reply to my comments. Yes, you mean Colin Powell, of course. That was an awful, awful thing. I am also aware that the term "conspiracy theory" was first used in response to skepticism around the Warren Commission's findings after JFK's assassination. I've been singing peace songs over all these years at events, rallies, concerts and conferences. I wish those songs would become obsolete. Tragically, they're as relevant today as they were 20 years ago, 60 years ago, and longer. Let's see how we can speak peace, sing for peace, become more peaceful within ourselves, work for peace, and communicate that peace truly is both practical and patriotic. I remember the old saying "War is not healthy for children and other living things" - that is also as true as ever. One organization I really appreciate is the Network of Spiritual Progressives, which has some excellent, inspiring visionary strategies on its website.
Dennis should have been the nominee; Joe Biden has not aided the working families in this nation. I am concerned about 2024, and a potential running mate.
Thank you, Hon. Dennis Kucinich! You're the best! You upheld Truth time and time again. And in response, some of us supported you in every way, gave of our every hour and "sacred fortune" to make you President. Let us share this and hope many more will listen now to your wisdom of truth. - SusanC.
Comparing America's ill-advised and morally corrupt invasion of Iraq with the Russian invasion of Ukraine doesn't hold up the way you're presenting it here. America in Iraq in 2003 is comparable to Russia in the current Ukraine war. We invaded a country based on a fabricated justification, the same as Russia has done to Ukraine in 2022.
"We invaded a country based on a fabricated justification, the same as Russia has done to Ukraine in 2022." Strongly disagree. The civil war in the Donbas raging since 2014 costing 14,000+ mostly ethnic Russian lives, actively supported by the U.S., was NOT a fabrication. Neither is the fact that forward-deployed tactical missiles stationed in a soon-to-be NATO member state, Ukraine, have a 300 second travel time to Moscow. Just imagine if the "evil Russians" had missiles of that sort deployed at less than 500 miles (think Charlotte, N.C.) from Washington, DC. To the "evil Russians" these were NOT fabrications. But maybe to you they are.
I agree 100%. No comparison whatsoever between the two situations. How about Iraq was based on lies and Russia tried with every ounce of diplomacy to avoid what they were forced to do in Ukraine to protect their own existence!
Not enough attention has been paid to Russia’s reasonable argument of not wanting nato weapons of mass destruction sitting at their boarder. I am reminded of JFK ‘s cutting off Russia’s extension into Cuba....& the back door admission that we were actually doing the same (in turkey or someplace).... which again the media never dwelt upon. These current military solutions to human fears are quite devastating.... but they all begin with a bit of disinformation or outright lying through omission! We also have to study who profits... from the military industrial complex and throw some light onto American corruption which appears to rule everything!
Russia was "forced" to start bombing Ukrainian towns and send thousands of troops to threaten Kyiv and to continue to bomb and annihilate Ukrainian towns? And Johann's response to Matthew twice refers to "evil Russians", a term that Matthew never used. Having grown up during the Cold War and being taught to fear/hate the former Soviet Union, often excessively and irrationally, I surely understand the need to keep from seeing Russia as the "Evil Empire" again. As in Kucinich's analysis of US overwhelming malfeasance in Iraq, we need to learn as much as possible about the historical background of Ukraine and Russia.
Oh, Russia is worried about Ukraine's proximity, is it? Look at a map. The Baltics are just as close to Moscow as Ukraine and they're ALREADY in NATO. So how does Ukraine's proximity change anything? It's an incredibly weak argument.
Was going to respond in good faith, pointing out to you that while The Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) wisely have decided NOT to station U.S. tactical nukes on their soil (Russia would overrun these tiny, defenceless states within 48 hours if they ever decided to pose a threat to Russia), whereas Ukraine (aka Mr. Selensky) at the Feb 2022 NATO Munich conference explicitly asked for nukes to be stationed on its soil, but then I realized, what the hell, you believe what you want to believe...WMDs in Iraq, Putin BAD, Iran is a threat, China very BAD, Vietnam dominoes, Afghanistan needs to be occupied, Yugoslavia bombings by NATO were just, Cuba communist, and on and on. You believe what you are being told, but please, don't spread what you think you know before some reflection and independent research. Just sayin'
For better or worse Karen, it will not stop until we rise up against our corporate overlords. Historian Noam Chomsky noted recently that he couldn't think of a single time where substantive change happened without a citizen uprising. And of course our nation-state system lends itself to the Permanent War Paradigm. cheers
I already did rise up against our corporate overlords during Occupy and the Great Financial Crime Spree. That also does nothing. Obama still allowed the banking crooks to walk. The judges allowed the unlawful foreclosures using forged documents to move ahead. Nothing changed. I don't think anything will change unless we just stop being a part of the system. Not enough off grid places for everyone to do that. I don't know what the answer is, but I sure know it weighs on me.
For me, the answer has been to stop voting D/R - have voted 3rd Party since '96 - after Clinton cemented NAFTA, one could see where that was going - Perot's "giant sucking sound" of American jobs proceeded apace. I tried to give the DP another chance in '04, '08 when I supported Kucinich for the DP nomination - when he didn't get it either time, I voted Nader, and Stein in '12 and '16. The DP has rather consistently sabotaged Kucinich - and all he stands for ..
Not until we vote in large numbers for a 3rd Party - with a good candidate, like K, will we get anywhere. We can march 'til our soles (souls) wear out, call 'til our ears fall off, and petition our fingers to the bone, but it will avail us nothing until we oust the duopoly ...
Thanks so much for your years of commitment to peace and justice. It's beyond important now that people who have considered themselves to be 'good Democrats' wake up to the devastating cruelty, greed and warmongering profiteering that almost all of today's Democrats work hard to sustain and unfortunately expand. I'm thankful literally for the future of the planet for platforms like Substack that give PEACE a CHANCE! I encourage you to address the positive necessities for veganism, for animals, for human health, for our air, our land and our water and our sense of fairness and decency. It's a VITALLY important conversation that needs your voice. For ALL of us, thanks!
Dennis, not just Saddam but Al Quaeda had nothing to do with 9.11 either because Al-Quaeda is just a CIA made pretext front for other entities that did 9.11 and other Al-Q things.
Yes. The Neocons of PNAC - Project for a New American Century - were the primary planners and producers of the 911 black operation - called in Israel "The Big Wedding". Then-Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim (who knew exactly where the missing $2.3 trillion had gone) purchased at least 2 US military jets early in 2001 and retrofitted them at his company, Systems Planning Corporation, where he was CEO, with missiles, reinforcements, and UAV (drone) capability. Planning for that major event - compared to "a New Pearl Harbor" in PNAC's document "Rebuilding America's Defenses" and beyond - is traceable as far back as early 1945, with the July 28, 1945 kamikaze-like US B25 strike into the Empire State Building.
So glad you are back! I worked on/supported both your campaigns for Pres. saw how you have been treated by the DP and hope you have freed yourself from it - saw your speech at the Rage Against the War rally and grinned from ear to ear ... that quote from the Dec of Ind was spot on - to put it in colloquial terms - we gotta "throw the bums out"
I would gladly work for you again - please do consider it, we can figure out away ...
Your voice on Iraq was desperately needed and I recall being so grateful for your courage at the manipulation by the Bush/Cheney administration and its NYT supporters in that evil lead up to war. However, these comparisons with Ukraine do not work, in my opinion. You seem to diminish Putin's continuing destruction of Ukraine and his insupportable persecution of Russian opposition to his war. Your accusation of US Ukrainian support based on oil hegemony, seems mostly based on Seymour Hersh's dubious findings as well as on Putin's self-serving accusations.
The few MSM tv videos certainly evidenced manipulation. However, the other >50 spontaneous videos-with-audios from the street and as far away as the George Washington Bridge do not evidence any manipulation. Men-in-black are NOT reported to have seized all >50 people's cameras and/or media and altered them at a Manhattan editing bay and then returned them all by nightfall so they could be posted the next day (or same day). No, those >50 videos have integrity. They are real, as is their subject matter. And their consistent audios, which cannot have be fabricated through CGI or massive stereo systems from high rises to depict the de facto military jets flying from many miles away, were REAL. Op. Northwoods-style jet replacement took place at Stewart AFB, per c*a whistleblower Mike Rupert and others. The original two passenger planes, with their transponders off, landed and deboarded at Stewart, and two retrofitted US military jets took off in their place. The black boxes were found by FDNY men; while one of the engines of the WTC2 jet was eyewitnessed and filmed falling parabolically, burning, to ground, where it landed, breaking up the concrete, at Church & Murray Sts. Initially too hot to handle, it was cordoned off by FBI, during which time many people photographed it. Aviation experts confirmed the engine was that of a military jet. (See my other message on this subject.)
I agree that the airplanes in the videos were more likely military, not civilian airliners. That doesn't change the evidence that lacks any real airplane parts in the destruction except things that were planted there to convince people the official story is the right one; in fact, it makes the real story more likely! Also, were you aware that a squadron of fighters was called up and flew in a big racetrack pattern around 100 miles off coast in the Atlantic during the timeframe of the event?
Yes, it was Pearl Harbor 2.0, to get the American people up for war in the ME for politics and money...as bad as it was, Pearl was for a good reason, to make sure Americans, tired of world wars, realized and supported efforts to take down the military threat posed at that time by Japan. But 9/11 was just a lie for politics and money.
Sorry to inform you of this, but the original Pearl Harbor likewise involved packs of lies, too. It was no surprise. In fact, the US Military aided and abetted it, for which reason the Admiral in charge, initially falsely blamed, was acquitted by the US Congress decades later. Similarly note that Japan had surrendered prior to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively on Aug. 6 & 9, 1945. No good reason for nuking Japan...except to show the world military might....
No, it's true...check out the site at www.ae911truth.org for the views from around 2,000 engineering experts and architects who understand the deal about the structure of the buildings that would not have allowed total destruction of the buildings from a hit in the upper areas...and then, too: where are airplane parts anywhere in the destruction? But there was leftover chemicals linked to intentional destruction. Learn truth and then talk about it...
Dave, you're almost spot on. However the black boxes were indeed found in the rubble, as reported early on by two men with FDNY. They wrote a book about it - one that was squelched by FBI, which seized all the books and demanded that the men destroy any remaining ones. The WTC2 engine at Church & Murray Sts was seen falling, burning, in various spontaneous videos and of course then photographed by many people once it had fallen and broken the concrete there.
The turbine fan found at the Pentagon was not from the type of aircraft that supposedly hit there. The black boxes could have been planted, as was that turbine fan. After the investigation was completed and the NIST report issued, since there were no actual airplane parts found in the fallen structure, suddenly it was reported that some parts were found in the area. The crash videos were doctored. The cell phone conversation that supposedly revealed the passengers trying to take over the Shanksville plane could not have happened back then, and why would you give your entire name when you call your mother? There was no airplane at Shanksville, no bodies, nothing that looked like an airplane, according to the assigned coroner sent there. Video from a security camera down the street from the Pentagon showed a slight blip go across the scene, and then a large explosion in the Pentagon wall. Naturally, if you want to convince the world that your version of something is the real one, you have to have at least some kind of evidence to show that proves your story. This was a well planned event that involved US officials along with Saudis and Israelis who benefited from the situation. If the engine falling was the only evidence (well, including the black boxes), where is the rest of the plane? It doesn't just disappear into the universe...oh, and the audio I had access to with regard to WTC 7 evidences the planned destruction there, when you hear the fire captain say "OK, light it up" and seconds later there are multiple explosions and the building collapses...too much evidence against the crash stories that really pose the questions and conclusions that have been affirmed by the various experts involved outside the NIST bullshit. I know what I know, that's my position...
Thank you, Dave. Indeed. Let me take this point-by-point - noting for others THIS IS ESSENTIAL. Our digging for Truth about 911 is ESSENTIAL, if we're ever to have our nation back. Satyagraha! First, I did not mention anything found at the Pentagon. I referred rather to the fallen, burnt engine from the WTC2 jet strike at Church & Murray Sts., Manhattan, which mostly-titanium engine broke the concrete upon impact; echoing the behavior of the dense engines of the US B25 that had struck the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945. This cordoned-off, very hot engine in NYC, which could not immediately be removed, was much photographed and positively identified by aviation experts as from a US military jet. Just as in 1945, it was a US military aircraft that on 911 struck the tallest building(s) in NYC. The nearly 600 mph speed clocked before impact as well as the 50+ videos and their respective, consistent audios, some of the videos close up, showing the missile underneath, further confirm that the WTC2 strike was by a US military jet.
I do believe military, rather than civilian airliners, were involved in setting the circumstance. But again, where is the rest of the aircraft? The tail section and wings, for example, would have been evidenced, even if in parts, but nothing was found but what you said. Easily made to happen when you have a collection of experts involved in the destruction plan. One big point in this is the fact that rather than just the aircraft hit and explosion damaging the structure, there were multiple, unaccountable explosions which led to the downfall of the buildings. The building structures would not have permitted the entire building to collapse from a hit in the upper section...maybe 8 or 10 floors and the upper structure...the WTC's were not the only buildings built with that kind of structure, to minimize the destruction in just that kind of case; there was at least one case that I learned about during my studies where in a similar building somewhere a fire broke out that involved several floors before being put out and the structure did not collapse. Believe me, I understand there is enough of like what you've said to convince people this was done by Muslim terrorists, but it was done like Pearl, with the goal to having the American public wanting to destroy and control the ME for our own benefit in cooperation with our oil industry partner and otherwise powerful presence in that part of the world. It was just another big lie for power and control, just like the event that triggered our entry into Vietnam that never actually happened, and so many other things like the JFK and Bobby Kennedy assassinations, the Navy's shootdown of a supposed innocent Iranian airliner, Watergate, etc...
Of the 53 known videos of the WTC strikes, only ~4 evidence any "doctoring", and those were MSM videos. The rest - almost all amateur, spontaneous videos-with-audio - are entirely consistent with each other and show the clear strike of the jet. Much disinformation has been loudly broadcast claiming only a few MSM videos existed, in order to hide the fact of the strike - most importantly, that indeed, one engine, two black boxes, and other jet parts were discovered on the streets and in the rubble. We need to cling to Truth, and not be led away from the EVIDENCE that leads to the perpetrators and their potential prosecution. Many videos have sprung up to deny or dismiss the evidence in one form or another. Why? The evidence all leads to perpetration by Israeli-American PNAC members - particularly then-Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim, who'd purchased at least 2 decommissioned US military jets early in 2001 toward their retrofitting at his company, Systems Planning Corporation, for their terrible, terrifying purposes in NYC. To carry out the crimes of 911, PNAC employed many hundreds of Israeli agents, 200 of whom were arrested on and shortly after 911, but quietly released about 70 days later when the State Dept had come under much pressure from Israel so to do. An initial 300 or so had fled the US on an escape vehicle - an El-Al flight from out of JFK airport to Tel Aviv - AFTER the FAA had downed ALL flights that day.
Thank you Dennis. I republished it on the California Free Press. Interesting to note that Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were such vocal advocates of the Iraq war. Clinton was in the process of proving her cred as a tough warmonger in the grand old US tradition. As a woman she had to make it appear to the public that she was just as strong as any man in this regard. Remember "We came. We saw. We killed him."? She gloated over the killing of Gaddaffi. Biden isn't any less salutary in this regard although I give him a lot of credit for what he has accomplished domestically.
Mr. Kucinich - I remember your valiant efforts to impeach George Bush for leading the nation into a war under false pretense. I remember your speech at the Democratic Convention imploring Americans to (yes) “Wake Up!” to the disastrous war(s) engineered by far right Republicans.
I’ll never forget how that scummer Tim Russert ambushed over the UFO sighting that Ms. MacLaine referenced in her book. Of course after that “media” had field day making you another Jerry Brown Space Cadet.
Your actual response was honest and given that 14% of Americans at that time stated they had seen a UFO meant that millions of Americans had seen dome object in the sky that they could not attribute to normal aircraft.
I believe that night America lost our last best hope for a President that could have prevented the nightmare world that John Birch Society Republicans have created today.
It’s nice to hear your voice again. I was one of thousands who marched in Washington DC against the war in Iraq. Millions across the world also protested. But it didn’t matter to the politicians here. Their “shock and awe” displayed for us on TV was horrifying, unforgettable and unforgivable.
Thank you, Francine, for being in DC then. I organized an opposition rally in northern NH, where I was at the time, to alert everyone to the fallacies involved and try to stop that heinous war.
I watching operation Shock and Awe on a McDonald's tv screen, while on lunch break from public school. It was scary to see a country get bombed from a camera using night vision. 9/11 was scary enough, my thought was "oh shit, this is war!?" . I was fixated on the screen, feeling helpless.
Exactly.
Great summary of a criminal tragedy for which, so far, no one has been held accountable. When crimes are committed without consequence, repetition is likely.
Payment is always by those who cannot fight back.
Dennis, I supported you financially and wholeheartedly during your presidential run.During your whole career in Ohio you were never afraid to speak truth to power. Then came that fateful day when your vote alone stood between Obamacare or no Obamacare. Up until that day you had been wholeheartedly against the plan. I told everyone I knew that you would not crack and I believed it but I was wrong. So I didn’t read this whole article because I know you write well I know you do your research well but action does speak louder than words. Getting Obamacare through was crucial to his career. He along with Clinton as his secretary of state destroyed Libya he also sent drones to the Middle East to indiscriminately kill people who are on his list. As well if Obamacare hadn’t gone through it might have forced a return to looking at national healthcare which you always adamantly supported. There are some of us around who still remember. 
Obama also allowed another war to begin----a financial one. Where the crooked bankers went scot-free while 18,000,000 foreclosures with forged documents were allowed to happen. Obama and the Democrats following made me into a person who proudly displays a "Don't Tread on Me" flag.
Thank you for this well-written attempt to refresh the memories of the American people. As the drums were beating louder and louder for the Iraq invasion, I was singing at peace rallies in Seattle. Once the invasion took place on March 19, 2003, people went home feeling distraught and powerless. I greatly appreciate all your efforts over the years, Dennis Kucinich. I supported you then and I support you now. We need the political will for peace - for people to finally see peace as what it is: Practical and Patriotic. As a progressive Democrat, over the years, I have been so frustrated listening to politicians including Hillary Clinton using language that was clearly pushing for wars with Russia and China. That is reckless and extremely dangerous to the American public and to the world. It made me sick to see Joe BIden joyfully put a 'Liberty Medal' around the neck of war criminal George W. Bush in 2018.
We need a strong political voice for peace. We haven't had that voice or that wisdom since JFK was assassinated. On June 10, 1963, JFK delivered a commencement address at American University that has become known as his 'peace speech'. The transcript and video of that speech are online. I encourage everyone to read and/or listen to it. His remarks are as relevant and needed today as they were just after the Cuban missile crisis. This June 10 will be the 60th anniversary of that speech and I hope there will be many events marking that anniversary and revisiting what JFK was telling the American public, and the youth of that time inheriting a heavy burden. Despite our efforts for accountability, war criminals continue to run free in our country to this very day.
Sharon, it brought tears to my eyes to think that someone was singing peace songs during Bush’s “ shock and awe”. I remember going to work that day with feelings of trepidation that the invasion would actually take place and no one at work seem to even be aware of it. I remember people in the Bush administration talking about how the Iraqis would be throwing flowers at the American soldiers feet as they arrived to free them from Saddam. which brings to mind another fallen hero Clayton Powell holding up the fake vial of anthrax to symbolize Saddam‘s weapons of mass destruction which never existed used to justify the invasion to begin with. Thank you for the reminder of John F Kennedy‘s peace speech which also always brings tears to my eyes I hope if anyone is sitting around today with nothing to do Who cares about peace that they look that up today and read it. Nice to know that anybody who ever spoke for our country used such words and had such a noble concepts and intentions. Also of note is that investigations into his assassination were the source of the CIA coining the term conspiracy theory.

Hi Cynthia, thanks for your reply to my comments. Yes, you mean Colin Powell, of course. That was an awful, awful thing. I am also aware that the term "conspiracy theory" was first used in response to skepticism around the Warren Commission's findings after JFK's assassination. I've been singing peace songs over all these years at events, rallies, concerts and conferences. I wish those songs would become obsolete. Tragically, they're as relevant today as they were 20 years ago, 60 years ago, and longer. Let's see how we can speak peace, sing for peace, become more peaceful within ourselves, work for peace, and communicate that peace truly is both practical and patriotic. I remember the old saying "War is not healthy for children and other living things" - that is also as true as ever. One organization I really appreciate is the Network of Spiritual Progressives, which has some excellent, inspiring visionary strategies on its website.
Dennis should have been the nominee; Joe Biden has not aided the working families in this nation. I am concerned about 2024, and a potential running mate.
Thank you, Hon. Dennis Kucinich! You're the best! You upheld Truth time and time again. And in response, some of us supported you in every way, gave of our every hour and "sacred fortune" to make you President. Let us share this and hope many more will listen now to your wisdom of truth. - SusanC.
Comparing America's ill-advised and morally corrupt invasion of Iraq with the Russian invasion of Ukraine doesn't hold up the way you're presenting it here. America in Iraq in 2003 is comparable to Russia in the current Ukraine war. We invaded a country based on a fabricated justification, the same as Russia has done to Ukraine in 2022.
"We invaded a country based on a fabricated justification, the same as Russia has done to Ukraine in 2022." Strongly disagree. The civil war in the Donbas raging since 2014 costing 14,000+ mostly ethnic Russian lives, actively supported by the U.S., was NOT a fabrication. Neither is the fact that forward-deployed tactical missiles stationed in a soon-to-be NATO member state, Ukraine, have a 300 second travel time to Moscow. Just imagine if the "evil Russians" had missiles of that sort deployed at less than 500 miles (think Charlotte, N.C.) from Washington, DC. To the "evil Russians" these were NOT fabrications. But maybe to you they are.
I agree 100%. No comparison whatsoever between the two situations. How about Iraq was based on lies and Russia tried with every ounce of diplomacy to avoid what they were forced to do in Ukraine to protect their own existence!
Not enough attention has been paid to Russia’s reasonable argument of not wanting nato weapons of mass destruction sitting at their boarder. I am reminded of JFK ‘s cutting off Russia’s extension into Cuba....& the back door admission that we were actually doing the same (in turkey or someplace).... which again the media never dwelt upon. These current military solutions to human fears are quite devastating.... but they all begin with a bit of disinformation or outright lying through omission! We also have to study who profits... from the military industrial complex and throw some light onto American corruption which appears to rule everything!
Russia was "forced" to start bombing Ukrainian towns and send thousands of troops to threaten Kyiv and to continue to bomb and annihilate Ukrainian towns? And Johann's response to Matthew twice refers to "evil Russians", a term that Matthew never used. Having grown up during the Cold War and being taught to fear/hate the former Soviet Union, often excessively and irrationally, I surely understand the need to keep from seeing Russia as the "Evil Empire" again. As in Kucinich's analysis of US overwhelming malfeasance in Iraq, we need to learn as much as possible about the historical background of Ukraine and Russia.
Oh, Russia is worried about Ukraine's proximity, is it? Look at a map. The Baltics are just as close to Moscow as Ukraine and they're ALREADY in NATO. So how does Ukraine's proximity change anything? It's an incredibly weak argument.
Was going to respond in good faith, pointing out to you that while The Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) wisely have decided NOT to station U.S. tactical nukes on their soil (Russia would overrun these tiny, defenceless states within 48 hours if they ever decided to pose a threat to Russia), whereas Ukraine (aka Mr. Selensky) at the Feb 2022 NATO Munich conference explicitly asked for nukes to be stationed on its soil, but then I realized, what the hell, you believe what you want to believe...WMDs in Iraq, Putin BAD, Iran is a threat, China very BAD, Vietnam dominoes, Afghanistan needs to be occupied, Yugoslavia bombings by NATO were just, Cuba communist, and on and on. You believe what you are being told, but please, don't spread what you think you know before some reflection and independent research. Just sayin'
How do we stop such evil? I have been calling/writing my Congress reps to halt funding Ukraine. No response.
For better or worse Karen, it will not stop until we rise up against our corporate overlords. Historian Noam Chomsky noted recently that he couldn't think of a single time where substantive change happened without a citizen uprising. And of course our nation-state system lends itself to the Permanent War Paradigm. cheers
I already did rise up against our corporate overlords during Occupy and the Great Financial Crime Spree. That also does nothing. Obama still allowed the banking crooks to walk. The judges allowed the unlawful foreclosures using forged documents to move ahead. Nothing changed. I don't think anything will change unless we just stop being a part of the system. Not enough off grid places for everyone to do that. I don't know what the answer is, but I sure know it weighs on me.
For me, the answer has been to stop voting D/R - have voted 3rd Party since '96 - after Clinton cemented NAFTA, one could see where that was going - Perot's "giant sucking sound" of American jobs proceeded apace. I tried to give the DP another chance in '04, '08 when I supported Kucinich for the DP nomination - when he didn't get it either time, I voted Nader, and Stein in '12 and '16. The DP has rather consistently sabotaged Kucinich - and all he stands for ..
Not until we vote in large numbers for a 3rd Party - with a good candidate, like K, will we get anywhere. We can march 'til our soles (souls) wear out, call 'til our ears fall off, and petition our fingers to the bone, but it will avail us nothing until we oust the duopoly ...
You are assuming you believe the results of the voting process.
There's absolutely no way 81 million people voted for a dementia patient.
Hmmm, OK - so for whom did they vote?
If you have given up on voting, what is your solution?
"What is your solution?" That was my first question.
I gave it to you - you dismissed it ...
I apologize to you that I just don't believe in my government, which means I also don't believe the voting results. It is a quandry.
Be careful what you wish for; there is always a price to pay.
Thanks so much for your years of commitment to peace and justice. It's beyond important now that people who have considered themselves to be 'good Democrats' wake up to the devastating cruelty, greed and warmongering profiteering that almost all of today's Democrats work hard to sustain and unfortunately expand. I'm thankful literally for the future of the planet for platforms like Substack that give PEACE a CHANCE! I encourage you to address the positive necessities for veganism, for animals, for human health, for our air, our land and our water and our sense of fairness and decency. It's a VITALLY important conversation that needs your voice. For ALL of us, thanks!
Dennis, not just Saddam but Al Quaeda had nothing to do with 9.11 either because Al-Quaeda is just a CIA made pretext front for other entities that did 9.11 and other Al-Q things.
https://www.corbettreport.com/corbett-report-documentaries/
Yes. The Neocons of PNAC - Project for a New American Century - were the primary planners and producers of the 911 black operation - called in Israel "The Big Wedding". Then-Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim (who knew exactly where the missing $2.3 trillion had gone) purchased at least 2 US military jets early in 2001 and retrofitted them at his company, Systems Planning Corporation, where he was CEO, with missiles, reinforcements, and UAV (drone) capability. Planning for that major event - compared to "a New Pearl Harbor" in PNAC's document "Rebuilding America's Defenses" and beyond - is traceable as far back as early 1945, with the July 28, 1945 kamikaze-like US B25 strike into the Empire State Building.
Great write up Dennis...Dennis has been a champion of freedom for a long time...
So glad you are back! I worked on/supported both your campaigns for Pres. saw how you have been treated by the DP and hope you have freed yourself from it - saw your speech at the Rage Against the War rally and grinned from ear to ear ... that quote from the Dec of Ind was spot on - to put it in colloquial terms - we gotta "throw the bums out"
I would gladly work for you again - please do consider it, we can figure out away ...
You were always a voice of reason and integrity. Both in short supply these days.😰
Your voice on Iraq was desperately needed and I recall being so grateful for your courage at the manipulation by the Bush/Cheney administration and its NYT supporters in that evil lead up to war. However, these comparisons with Ukraine do not work, in my opinion. You seem to diminish Putin's continuing destruction of Ukraine and his insupportable persecution of Russian opposition to his war. Your accusation of US Ukrainian support based on oil hegemony, seems mostly based on Seymour Hersh's dubious findings as well as on Putin's self-serving accusations.
No more bloodletting of Americans for Ukraine. Let Israel take the lead there, if it so chooses.
Yes, and 9/11 itself was a preplanned controlled demolition and convenient footage from a (faked) 'amateur' video wasn't it?
The few MSM tv videos certainly evidenced manipulation. However, the other >50 spontaneous videos-with-audios from the street and as far away as the George Washington Bridge do not evidence any manipulation. Men-in-black are NOT reported to have seized all >50 people's cameras and/or media and altered them at a Manhattan editing bay and then returned them all by nightfall so they could be posted the next day (or same day). No, those >50 videos have integrity. They are real, as is their subject matter. And their consistent audios, which cannot have be fabricated through CGI or massive stereo systems from high rises to depict the de facto military jets flying from many miles away, were REAL. Op. Northwoods-style jet replacement took place at Stewart AFB, per c*a whistleblower Mike Rupert and others. The original two passenger planes, with their transponders off, landed and deboarded at Stewart, and two retrofitted US military jets took off in their place. The black boxes were found by FDNY men; while one of the engines of the WTC2 jet was eyewitnessed and filmed falling parabolically, burning, to ground, where it landed, breaking up the concrete, at Church & Murray Sts. Initially too hot to handle, it was cordoned off by FBI, during which time many people photographed it. Aviation experts confirmed the engine was that of a military jet. (See my other message on this subject.)
I agree that the airplanes in the videos were more likely military, not civilian airliners. That doesn't change the evidence that lacks any real airplane parts in the destruction except things that were planted there to convince people the official story is the right one; in fact, it makes the real story more likely! Also, were you aware that a squadron of fighters was called up and flew in a big racetrack pattern around 100 miles off coast in the Atlantic during the timeframe of the event?
Yes, it was Pearl Harbor 2.0, to get the American people up for war in the ME for politics and money...as bad as it was, Pearl was for a good reason, to make sure Americans, tired of world wars, realized and supported efforts to take down the military threat posed at that time by Japan. But 9/11 was just a lie for politics and money.
Sorry to inform you of this, but the original Pearl Harbor likewise involved packs of lies, too. It was no surprise. In fact, the US Military aided and abetted it, for which reason the Admiral in charge, initially falsely blamed, was acquitted by the US Congress decades later. Similarly note that Japan had surrendered prior to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively on Aug. 6 & 9, 1945. No good reason for nuking Japan...except to show the world military might....
You are correct, which is why I assert that 9/11 was Pearl Harbor 2.0...
please let this be sarcasm.
No, it's true...check out the site at www.ae911truth.org for the views from around 2,000 engineering experts and architects who understand the deal about the structure of the buildings that would not have allowed total destruction of the buildings from a hit in the upper areas...and then, too: where are airplane parts anywhere in the destruction? But there was leftover chemicals linked to intentional destruction. Learn truth and then talk about it...
Dave, you're almost spot on. However the black boxes were indeed found in the rubble, as reported early on by two men with FDNY. They wrote a book about it - one that was squelched by FBI, which seized all the books and demanded that the men destroy any remaining ones. The WTC2 engine at Church & Murray Sts was seen falling, burning, in various spontaneous videos and of course then photographed by many people once it had fallen and broken the concrete there.
The turbine fan found at the Pentagon was not from the type of aircraft that supposedly hit there. The black boxes could have been planted, as was that turbine fan. After the investigation was completed and the NIST report issued, since there were no actual airplane parts found in the fallen structure, suddenly it was reported that some parts were found in the area. The crash videos were doctored. The cell phone conversation that supposedly revealed the passengers trying to take over the Shanksville plane could not have happened back then, and why would you give your entire name when you call your mother? There was no airplane at Shanksville, no bodies, nothing that looked like an airplane, according to the assigned coroner sent there. Video from a security camera down the street from the Pentagon showed a slight blip go across the scene, and then a large explosion in the Pentagon wall. Naturally, if you want to convince the world that your version of something is the real one, you have to have at least some kind of evidence to show that proves your story. This was a well planned event that involved US officials along with Saudis and Israelis who benefited from the situation. If the engine falling was the only evidence (well, including the black boxes), where is the rest of the plane? It doesn't just disappear into the universe...oh, and the audio I had access to with regard to WTC 7 evidences the planned destruction there, when you hear the fire captain say "OK, light it up" and seconds later there are multiple explosions and the building collapses...too much evidence against the crash stories that really pose the questions and conclusions that have been affirmed by the various experts involved outside the NIST bullshit. I know what I know, that's my position...
Thank you, Dave. Indeed. Let me take this point-by-point - noting for others THIS IS ESSENTIAL. Our digging for Truth about 911 is ESSENTIAL, if we're ever to have our nation back. Satyagraha! First, I did not mention anything found at the Pentagon. I referred rather to the fallen, burnt engine from the WTC2 jet strike at Church & Murray Sts., Manhattan, which mostly-titanium engine broke the concrete upon impact; echoing the behavior of the dense engines of the US B25 that had struck the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945. This cordoned-off, very hot engine in NYC, which could not immediately be removed, was much photographed and positively identified by aviation experts as from a US military jet. Just as in 1945, it was a US military aircraft that on 911 struck the tallest building(s) in NYC. The nearly 600 mph speed clocked before impact as well as the 50+ videos and their respective, consistent audios, some of the videos close up, showing the missile underneath, further confirm that the WTC2 strike was by a US military jet.
I do believe military, rather than civilian airliners, were involved in setting the circumstance. But again, where is the rest of the aircraft? The tail section and wings, for example, would have been evidenced, even if in parts, but nothing was found but what you said. Easily made to happen when you have a collection of experts involved in the destruction plan. One big point in this is the fact that rather than just the aircraft hit and explosion damaging the structure, there were multiple, unaccountable explosions which led to the downfall of the buildings. The building structures would not have permitted the entire building to collapse from a hit in the upper section...maybe 8 or 10 floors and the upper structure...the WTC's were not the only buildings built with that kind of structure, to minimize the destruction in just that kind of case; there was at least one case that I learned about during my studies where in a similar building somewhere a fire broke out that involved several floors before being put out and the structure did not collapse. Believe me, I understand there is enough of like what you've said to convince people this was done by Muslim terrorists, but it was done like Pearl, with the goal to having the American public wanting to destroy and control the ME for our own benefit in cooperation with our oil industry partner and otherwise powerful presence in that part of the world. It was just another big lie for power and control, just like the event that triggered our entry into Vietnam that never actually happened, and so many other things like the JFK and Bobby Kennedy assassinations, the Navy's shootdown of a supposed innocent Iranian airliner, Watergate, etc...
Of the 53 known videos of the WTC strikes, only ~4 evidence any "doctoring", and those were MSM videos. The rest - almost all amateur, spontaneous videos-with-audio - are entirely consistent with each other and show the clear strike of the jet. Much disinformation has been loudly broadcast claiming only a few MSM videos existed, in order to hide the fact of the strike - most importantly, that indeed, one engine, two black boxes, and other jet parts were discovered on the streets and in the rubble. We need to cling to Truth, and not be led away from the EVIDENCE that leads to the perpetrators and their potential prosecution. Many videos have sprung up to deny or dismiss the evidence in one form or another. Why? The evidence all leads to perpetration by Israeli-American PNAC members - particularly then-Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim, who'd purchased at least 2 decommissioned US military jets early in 2001 toward their retrofitting at his company, Systems Planning Corporation, for their terrible, terrifying purposes in NYC. To carry out the crimes of 911, PNAC employed many hundreds of Israeli agents, 200 of whom were arrested on and shortly after 911, but quietly released about 70 days later when the State Dept had come under much pressure from Israel so to do. An initial 300 or so had fled the US on an escape vehicle - an El-Al flight from out of JFK airport to Tel Aviv - AFTER the FAA had downed ALL flights that day.
Thank you Dennis. I republished it on the California Free Press. Interesting to note that Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were such vocal advocates of the Iraq war. Clinton was in the process of proving her cred as a tough warmonger in the grand old US tradition. As a woman she had to make it appear to the public that she was just as strong as any man in this regard. Remember "We came. We saw. We killed him."? She gloated over the killing of Gaddaffi. Biden isn't any less salutary in this regard although I give him a lot of credit for what he has accomplished domestically.
https://www.californiafreepress.net/will_blog_for_food/2023/03/is-the-ukraine-war-following-the-iraq-war-playbook.html
Mr. Kucinich - I remember your valiant efforts to impeach George Bush for leading the nation into a war under false pretense. I remember your speech at the Democratic Convention imploring Americans to (yes) “Wake Up!” to the disastrous war(s) engineered by far right Republicans.
I’ll never forget how that scummer Tim Russert ambushed over the UFO sighting that Ms. MacLaine referenced in her book. Of course after that “media” had field day making you another Jerry Brown Space Cadet.
Your actual response was honest and given that 14% of Americans at that time stated they had seen a UFO meant that millions of Americans had seen dome object in the sky that they could not attribute to normal aircraft.
I believe that night America lost our last best hope for a President that could have prevented the nightmare world that John Birch Society Republicans have created today.