Yeah it's not the Bush Administration's fault, they just forbid any planning for insurgencies after Hussein was booted from power because the DoD had to keep the faith that "we will be greeted as liberators!" by all Iraqis. And now when the Generals this slob is trying to blame request resources that they know they need to do the job, our lovely government tells them No. Yup, clearly their fault!

The Iraq war is one Helluva mess. But according to Bush Rumsfeld is doing one Hellava job. So Mr President, if it is not you, and it is not Mr.Rumsfeld, then who is it? Who is responsible for this botched up war that is spiraling further and further in to chaos?

Kerry may have used the wrong operative phrase and then failed to clarify it, but he was spot on with context.
The vast majority of soldiers in today's volunteer military have without a doubt enlisted from the ranks of the lower middle class and from families living at or below the poverty level, in spite of all efforts made to work and achieve the so called American Dream.
As such, these boys and girls who are coincidently serving in Iraq in place of the many, many entitled children raised by the affluent and upper crust of our society, who have college and career opportunities without needing to enlist as a means to that end have as a rule and fact of our times been given a lesser K-12 education in the halls of public schooling (often in areas of depressed economics in rural and urban environments) than , let's say your average Senators son or daughter will ever need to subject themselves to.
In this respect, and by this comparison the bulk of todays troops in Iraq are under educated.
Case in point?
How many current Washington politicians and/or lawyers sons and daughters are serving in Iraq? Or for that matter how many are being aggressively approached by recruiters with promises of the moon and stars per capita as, say in the poverty ridden areas of Mississippi, New Jersey, Arkansas, Louisianna...you name it?
I don't think Cambridge MA or Beverly Hills has contributed near the same percentage of it's youth to the military and the Iraq fiasco.
And I don't think the youth in these sort of places are receiving the same substandard, production line education as the majority of the young men and women who are over seas right now, on George Bush's fools mission, either.
When placed in context, where was what Kerry said, so wrong?

MY NAME IS MICHELLE WILLIAMS AND I AM AN ARMY WIFE. MY OPINION ON WHAT SEN. JOHN KERRY SAID IS THIS... I DON'T BELIEVE THAT HE MEANT TO HURT THE SOLDIERS, HE WAS TRYING TO MAKE A POINT, HOWEVER NO ONE WAS TRYING TO HEAR THAT. ALL THEY HEARD WAS THE NEGATIVE. MY HUSBAND JUST CAME HOME FROM A YEARS TOUR IN IRAQ. HE JOINED THE MILITARY, NOT BECAUSE HE WAS BEING PATRIOTIC, BUT BECAUSE HE DIDN'T HAVE ANY OTHER WAY TO GO TO COLLEGE. HE DIDN'T WANT TO GO AND FIGHT THAT WAR, HE HAD TO. NOT FOR HIMSELF, BUT BECAUSE HIS COMANDER IN CHIEF SAID SO!! IF I UNDERSTOOD WHAT JOHN KERRY WAS SAYING WHY CAN'T AMERICA? I HAVE TO LIVE FIRST HAND IN THIS WAR. I MIGHT NOT BE SERVING, BUT I HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE PRESSURE. THESE POLITICIANS ( ALL OF THEM) DON'T REALIZE THE HURT AND THE PAIN US FAMILY MEMBERS GO THROUGH. AND WHAT IS IT FOR??? IT IS APPERENT THAT WE ARE NOT WANTED THERE. WE AS AMERCIANS HAVE A WAR HERE IN OUR OWN COUNTRY THAT NEEDS TO BE FOUGHT. HEALTHCARE, HOMELESS, PEOPLE KILLING OUR OWN. NOT A COUNTRY THAT DOESN'T WANT US TO HELP. YOU CAN ONLY HELP THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES... BUSH NEEDS TO FOLLOW THAT. THANKS FOR LETTING ME EXPRESS MY THOUGHTS ON THIS ISSUE. YOU ALL PLEASE BE BLESSED!!

As I should have written yesterday, John Kerry and George W Bush are both wrong.
Kerry is refering to the wrong war and George is fighting the wrong election.

Harry, you showed a lot of courage to speak your mind about the bonehead comments made by that bonehead Boehner, however you may find yourself in Gitmo as a result.

I'm suprised they haven't carted me away for speaking my mind on the abc.com website.

Hang on somebody's at my door...

Bender: Who is it?

FBI: It's the FBI.

Bender: Hey where are you taking me! Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zach you are 100% correct. No matter what those on capitol hill say, the military is mostly composed of middle/lower-class young people. It is sad that the only option they may have is to start off in the military. However, this is a democracy, and as such, everyone has a right to pull himself or herself up from the bottom.
Like it or not you should not blame the fatcats for acheiving their status and consequently making the lives of their childer easier/safer.
Is this not what America is all about or did I miss something.
mm

Bender,
I am really tired of the political B-S. We need to stop pointing fingers and start working together. Americans fail to realize that there are people out there that hate us and are willing to be our freinds to kill us. Both the American people and govenment need to get it together and put the personal B-S aside and make things happen. When was the last time the house or the senete did something other than fight about what "they" didn't agree with? Tell those jokers to get back to work and start running the country instead of their mouths. We are paying them you know.

We should remember that at least 30 billion dollars in Veterans Administration cuts came from this Republican administration and Congress

Ain't it amazing how they show respect and support for our "troops"? Many times more than the 3000 already dead will return home gravely wounded in body and mind, and the GOP wants to remain with them to give them all the support they need. (Body armor sold separately.)

As for the feelings of our active servicemen and women, it occurs to me that none of them would have had to deal with any of this had it not been called to their attention by.....Tony Snow and the Bush Admin in hot pursuit of their straw man. We wouldn't have heard of it it weren't for the planted question at his press conference.

I'm celebrating the massive defeat of the GOP (18 points!) next Tuesday in front of the TV with the same friends I was with on that ugly night two years ago when Ohio was stolen by Blackwell and Co. Our motto is an old one, first uttered by Carindal Richilieu. "It is not enough to succeed,others must be seen to fail."

Like I been saying people Reporters are republicans to..

OK, so Kerry botched a statement.
Bush botched a war.
Which do you think is more serious?

here we go again!

This is only politics at this point. The generals aren't to blame, Rumsfeld isn't to blame. It is the policy which is to blame. Pres. Bush and the Republican party is responsible for that policy and should now pay the price at the ballot box. That is the way a democracy works. Unless there are extreme "voting irregularities" with the electronic voting systems, Congressman Boehner will be in the minority in the House come Wednesday...and we won't care what he said.

It takes enormous intellectual dishonesty to have misunderstood Kerry's remarks in the context of his WHOLE LIFE. He wore the uniform and is a bona fide hero.

To hear his remarks construed as an attack on the troops is a joke. To hear his remarks characterized as an attack on the troops by news media is intellectual dishonesty. Shame on ABC news for that. NOBODY believes it was intended that way.

The only ones who owe the US troops an apology are the members of the Bush regime who sent them there. They have been unrepentant and have steered our country down a path of destruction. They owe us all an apology. Where is it????

John Kerry is a hero. That scares the pathetic chickenhawks.

This administration is a horror. The axis of evil is Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld. At the beginning of the war they talked of a campaign of bombing called "Shock & Awe". I should have known the "Shock" is how incompetent this administration is and the "Awe" is how the can lie, cheat and steal. I am adding a few quotes from some of the past leaders. They sure seem relevant.

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happened, you can bet it was planned that way."

Richard Nixon
36th U.S. President

"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him."

Thomas Jefferson

"You can't depend on the man who made the mess to clean it up."

Richard Nixon
36th U.S. President

"We want no war of conquest... War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed". - Inaugural Address, 1897

William McKinley
1897-1901

"How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print."

Karl Kraus
1874-1936

"Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war."

Otto Von Bismarck
Prime Minister

"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it."

Desiderius Erasmus
1466-1536

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

Dwight Eisenhower

"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."

John F. Kennedy
35th U.S. President

"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."

John F. Kennedy
35th U.S. President

"Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die."

Herbert Hoover
31st U.S President

"Delay is preferable to error."

Thomas Jefferson
3rd U.S. President
(1801-1809)

"Fear is the foundation of most government."

John Adams
2nd U.S. President
(1797-1801)

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

John Adams
2nd U.S. President

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

John Adams
2nd U.S. President

"If he [the President] speaks to Congress, it must be in the language of truth."

Andrew Jackson
7th U.S. President
1829-1837

"A decent and manly examination of the acts of government should not only be tolerated, but encouraged."

William Henry Harrison
9th U.S. President

Did anyone see the Manchurian candidate? I think that John Boehner and those republicans now in office had chips put in their head. Their message is always the same as the White House. I thought they were supposed to represent their voters. I guess if they stray from the talking points they will be punished. To blame our military for the failure in Iraq is absurb. John Boehner owes the troops an apology. This military is subjected to the same talking points and orders from this administration that he and the other lakey's obey.

Bush says Rumsfeld is doing a great job, is this the same President Bush that said Brownie of FEMA was doing a great job two weeks prior to firing him?

"I am a firm believer in the people.If given the truth they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis.The great point is to bring them the real facts."
Abraham Lincoln

Our president missed the "great point"

Tom Vaitys-- To think John Boehner is unpatriotic and blames the U.S. military leadership is as bad a joke as Senator Kerry tried to hatch a few days back.

Thankfully Kerry apologized- good move John Boehner said "case closed"- why not seems like a good idea! Consider issues instead of rhetoric.

The extreme right (Limbaugh, Cheney) will have to try to out-shout rhetoric this time around because it has nothing to support its argument that the center right running the show (Bush and Co.)has actually done anything all that well in the last two years.

If you like rhetoric about aging anti war protesters and you love being at War and you are squeezed by ever higher by Health Care Insurance and Costs and Your Job is ever more being threatened by outsourcing and you don't mind all those interesting sounding polysyllabic words floating around the water you drink and if you think that fee increases and the ever disappearing deductions from your federal taxes are really "tax-cuts"- then the current Republican Party is for you.

I’m willing to give the Democrats a test drive for 2 or 4 years with the hope for centrist reform. I do miss the happier go luckier days under Bill Clinton- maybe he wasn’t perfect Don’t think for second I won’t vote to throw them (Democrats) out on their ear if they go the Che Guerra route.

I doubt we could get a McCain Biden national unity ticket in 2008. Oh to be so lucky!

support (coffee) is for closers (glengary glen ross).. our troops, generals, DOD, and POTUS have not closed anything.. Mission accomplished read the banner, while the Iraqis were getting ready for the counter - strike, Bush was picking out his spot on Mt. Rushmore.. The Q I would ask the dry drunk, Bush baby, where is Mrs. Sheehan's aplogoy? 3,000 dead in NYC on 9/11 & 3,000 dead in Iraq since the invasion, and Osama is still alive