A European Blog about John Kerry and other political stuff

European Newspapers on Election Day

2008-11-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some frontpages from

European newspapers for November 4th.

Moving !

Different !

Funny !

Inspiring !

(The election that will change America)

La France vote Obama

2008-11-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

69 % of French people would vote for Obama, only 5 % for McCain.

80 % would be ready to elect a black candidate the President of France

From a French AP article:

Si les Français votaient le 4 novembre, c'est un raz-de-marée qui porterait Barack Obama à la Maison blanche. Pour la première fois depuis le conflit autour de la guerre en Irak en 2003, le candidat démocrate semble en position de réconcilier la France avec l'Amérique, même si son éventuelle victoire pourrait signifier aussi quelques désillusions.

Translation:

"If the French could vote on November 4th, a landslide would carry Barack Obama to the White House. For the first time since the conflict surrounding the Iraq War in 2003, the Democratic candidate seems to be in the position to reconcile France and the USA, even if a presumptive victory could also mean some desillusions."

The article continues to say that Obama is favored by a left-to-right spectrum of French political parties and that he had been welcomed with open arms by the French citizens as well during his short visit to Paris last summer (in contrast to Bush to whom the French always react with hostile protest).

Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy who likes America has subtly made known that he prefers Obama over McCain. He knows that the French public would accept his pro-America positions much easier with a President Obama than a President McCain.

And even if Obama's and McCain's positions are the same concerning climate change and the closing of Guantanamo, what makes the French easily favor Obama is the fact that he was against the Iraq war since the beginning and has a plan to bring it to an end, as it was this war indeed, that caused the rift between the French and the Americans in the first place.

Read the whole article in French here:

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/3/20081102/twl-usa-presidentielle-france-224d7fb.html

Obama's speech in Berlin: "A fellow citizen of the world"

2008-07-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my grandfather – was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning – his dream – required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

That is why I’m here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

And that’s when the airlift began – when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won…The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty…People of the world, look at Berlin!”

People of the world – look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.

Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.

Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.

People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.

Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall – a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope – walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers – dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we’re honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.

In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe’s role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth – that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.

Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more – not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.

So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.

That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations – and all nations – must summon that spirit anew.

This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.

This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.

This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.

This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century – in this city of all cities – we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all.

This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations – including my own – will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.

And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust – not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words “never again” in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don’t look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people – everywhere – became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation – our generation – must make our mark on the world.

People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamaroadblog/gGxyd4

~~~~~~~~~~

And John Kerry comments on Obama's speech:

On the speech itself, Kerry said it was "not just historic but unbelievably exciting at the grassroots level" to see "an American leader" cheered on foreign soil after so many years of world opinion being against Bush's policies. He said Obama told the Germans "not what they wanted to hear, but what they needed to hear" -- that America will return to leadership with the next president.

http://www.politickerma.com/editorma/467/kerry-obama-berlin-speech-things-have-changed-04

Germany for Obama !

2008-07-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

62 % of Germans would vote for Obama; only 10 % would choose McCain.

"... as if a rockstar is visiting Berlin"

2008-07-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Obama in my home country! I wish I could be there today but I live in France now and visit Germany only from time to time. (And well, he is coming to France too. *g*)

I was only 3 years old when John F. Kennedy came to Berlin but my amazed parents so often talked about this visit during my childhood and teenage years that it feels like I had been old enough to remember. My daughter now is old enough, actually a young adult following Obama's career since 2004, and we both are so hopeful that he will be the right person for America, Europe and the rest of the world. The 200000 gathered in Berlin today certainly think so as well.

And I remember another visit of an American President a few years ago. When G.W. Bush came to Mainz in 2005 I almost felt offended to have him come so close to my own hometown (Wiesbaden). On German TV they showed the empty streets and we heard the stories from friends and relatives who were confined to their shops and apartments because of security concerns. Or maybe less security but more concerns that Bush could see the protesters that had been in the streets of Mainz just the day before his visit.

What a difference now with Obama! And he isn't even president yet. Enjoy the contrast of today's pictures in comparison to the ones from Bush's visit 3 year ago. It's just amazing!

Obama in Berlin in July 2008:

Bush in Mainz in February 2005:

Empty streets...

... and protesters the day before

I thought that the USA were a Democracy

2008-03-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

Well, yes, during the more than 7 years under the rule of G.W. Bush Democracy was... declining... very much. But until now I really thought that it was the fault of Bush and his Neo-Fascist-Cons, and that soon with these criminals gone America would be a Democracy again.

Until recently I thought so. Now I'm not so sure anymore. I'm watching the primaries since January and would like to know how it is possible that elections in the US are sometimes more chaotic and irregular than elections in a Third World Country. How is it possible that votes aren't counted, voting places aren't prepared to receive the voters, people are bullied when they cast their votes, lawsuits are filed when a candidate isn't happy with the outcome and so on? How is it possible that serious journalists and TV anchors talk about the mere possibility to seat the delegates of Florida and Michigan when the primaries in these states were a joke with no campaigning and/or not all the candidates on the ballots? How is it possible that rules are bent to satisfy one candidate or the other? Is it really an election or a circus? And I always thought that the Democrats were "better" than the Republicans!

I'm sorry to say that, but if Hillary Clinton bullies and cheats and "law-suits" herself to the Democratic nomination, I'm done with America. As much as I like Barack Obama, I would have been comfortable with Clinton as the nominee, had she won the nomination in a normal and regular way. But what is happening right now is disgusting. I have lived in three different Democratic countries in Western Europe and never ever during an election here have I seen something like this. Americans are sending election observers to Pakistan but aren't able to hold their own elections in a correct way?? I'm really sorry for America. As much as I love John Kerry, he is only one man and he can only fight so much...

Cute!

2008-02-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

I just have to post this picture! They are both so cute together ;-)

Teresa Heinz Kerry and Barack Obama

Don't get me wrong. She could be his mom ;-) And she is very much in love with her husband, John Kerry. They were holding hands in Boston last night.

And here are all the great people that rallied for Obama last night in Boston. It was worth watching it online at 5am in the morning here in Europe.

Beautiful !

2008-02-02T06:21:00.001-08:00

This goes without words. But let me just say, this is the America the world is longing for.

Lyrics:

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.

Great news : Kerry endorses Obama !

2008-01-10T15:04:00.000-08:00

It was my deep conviction that John Kerry could endorse no other candidate than Barack Obama and it was only a matter of time when he would do so. But seeing my two favorite American politicians together today in Charleston, SC just made my day!

When I "discovered" the candidate John Kerry four years ago and read about his inspiring life I felt sad that I hadn't known John Kerry before. At the time when he became an activist after returning from Vietnam or when he first came to the US Senate and fought to expose Iran-Contra etc. ... I have to admit that I was a little bit jealous of my American friends who had followed all of John Kerry's carrier and I couldn't hurry enough to read and learn all about him.

Then in the summer of 2004 my daughter Julie and I saw and listened to Barack Obama at the democratic convention and thought: WOW, this guy is amazing! (as certainly tens of thousands of Americans did *g*). The media talked about him as a future candidate for first black American president and my thoughts were that this time I might be able to follow the guy's political carrier from the beginning, something I hadn't been able to do with John Kerry.

Little did I know that not even four years later Barack Obama would be already a candidate for the presidency and would get John Kerry's endorsement. I'm very excited today and hope that Obama stands a chance against Hillary Clinton. I think that in about a month we will know for sure, but for today let me just enjoy my two guys together. :-))

Here are some pictures from the Charleston event :

Link to YouTube video with excerpts of Kerry's speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIcmrTzoPXc

Judging from the gut

2008-01-05T07:39:00.001-08:00

When I first followed an American Presidential election closely four years ago, I didn’t know much about American politics and I didn’t really know the candidates. So, watching the Iowa caucuses, I had a look at the candidates and followed my feeling by choosing one. It turned out to be John Kerry. I knew nothing about him but his open face, his humble acceptance of his win and his humanity did it for me. (Just as a by-note: My daughter went for the pretty face: John Edwards. But she was only 14 back then, so it’s understandable. *g*) It turned out that my judgment wasn’t that bad when I later learned who John Kerry really was. Well, he didn’t become president but he became someone I see as a friend and always will.

Four years later I know much more about American politics and should do better. But you know what? I’m stilling going from my gut when it comes to take a liking in candidates. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way, but I can’t help it. I saw Barack Obama for the first time at the 2004 Democratic Convention (on TV, of course – I wasn’t there *g*) and I liked him immediately. I still like him very much and I’m happy that he won Iowa. Hillary Clinton seems so cold (as much as I like her husband) and John Edward’s smile so fake that I just can’t warm for one of them. Obama strikes me as intelligent, open, humane and optimistic. A new face for a new century. And I don’t see him as black or white, as male or female, as young or old, but just as a hope-inspiring human being. He speaks to my gut and I feel comfortable about it, even knowing all I know now about political calculation, electability and so on.

And I will shock my readers here even more and say, that I was also not unhappy about Mike Huckabee’s win. Don’t take me wrong. I still would take ANY Democrat over a Republican in the 2008 election, of course! But from all the Republican candidates Huckabee is the one I like a bit. Mitt Romney is a Ken doll, John McCain a broken man who sold his soul, Giuliani the typical hypocrite empty suit. Oh, I know, I shouldn’t like Huckabee! And most of his voters were Evangelical conservatives, a group of Americans I really despise. But again, I can’t help it. I have some sympathy for the man. I saw him first a few years ago on TV on a CNN Health program (nothing political) and I thought he was a nice guy. I realized only later that he was a Republican politician. And for a Republican his speech is humble enough. Maybe he is honest and believes in what he preaches (as an atheist I shouldn’t make the same mistake many religious people make the other way around, and think that all religious people are evil ;-)), maybe he is another hypocrite, only talented enough to have me on. I really don’t know and I’m far from saying that I always get it right.

Anyway, let’s go on to New Hampshire next week and see what happens there. I really hope for Obama to get the nomination, knowing well that a lot of my fellow Kerrycrats on DU don’t share my wish. But John Kerry… is not running, will never be president, as sad at it is. And I think that we have to move on. (Okay, as I’m not American it’s not as personal for me at it is for my friends, I know that).

I just like the feeling to sit back and watch the nomination process somewhat relaxed, as I did as well in 2004. I just “discovered” John Kerry four years ago, but had he run again now, I would have been very anxious and worried for him, hanging on every word he’d say or the journalists would write about him. As I said, and after meeting Kerry a few times and all my American friends who love him too, I see him as a friend and I would take everything concerning him somewhat personal. With Obama, who I like but don’t really know, it’s different. I wish him well but wouldn’t be so devastated if he didn’t become the nominee.

But I still hope with all my heart that, when the election comes in November, America will get her soul back. (It will be hard, I know that. I was born in Germany 15 years after the Second World War ended.) After eight years of Bush horror, the American people really deserve to get some peace and their hopes up again.

A big THANK YOU to John Kerry !

2007-05-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

After so much critique in my last post, I want to write something positive today, and yeah, it has to do with John Kerry, how could it be otherwise? ;-)

Yesterday the Democratic US Congress passed a vote on a troop funding bill that will let GW Bush continue the war in Iraq without setting a deadline for troop withdrawal. Emotions ran high in the blogosphere and certainly in the American population that opposes the war 3 to 1. People are frustrated and disappointed and in this atmosphere John Kerry posted a diary on Daily Kos to inform people that he votes "no" on the bill and to tell people not to give up.
(Isn't that so typical for John Kerry?! Think about his words in 1971: "This is not the struggle of one day..." - You can read them in full and listen to them by scrolling down to the bottom of my blog.)

From Kerry's diary (please read the whole thing, it's great!) :

I’m not going to call on you to do anything specific today; you’ve done so much already. I’m not going to ask for patience, because the truth is big policy changes like this are only achieved by impatient people – in huge numbers. I’m just telling you that I’ll continue to work every single day (every damn day as my old friend Ron says) to apply pressure to change this broken policy. There will be new avenues of attack, new paths to take. But, for right now, it’s up to folks like me to do our part to keep the battle going, so all of you can work to keep the pressure going. Together, we can win this, as long as we keep the battle joined. Keep punching.

And later John Kerry answered some comments and that was as beautiful as his original post:

Cynicism (19+ / 0-)
I think this Administration is counting on us to get cynical, disillusioned, and just quit on the whole enterprise. That’s how they win. These are really good reasons to be fed up -- fed up with Washington games, turned off by a political process that moves too slowly while good people die. But none of those are reasons to pack it in, they’re reasons to become more activist, to redouble our efforts. I understand your feelings, as well. This is a bitter struggle, I’ve been there before and this feels like déjà vu remembering Vietnam and a President who wouldn’t budge back then too. But one thing I’ll tell you is, I don’t come here to do anyone else’s bidding or speak out of anything other than my own conviction. I actually think it’s a strength and not a weakness of our Senate leadership and our caucus that no one in the leadership even knew I'd post a diary here; that's not the way we operate, that’s the way the other side operates. They’re the ones who demand Stepford-like message “discipline” – hence the reality of Roadblock Republicans who know this policy is a bust but cling to it with a stubbornness that reflects their leadership. I've been here before calling for action, I'll come here to celebrate when we win, and I thought I owed it to you to come here now when the bill didn't go the way I wanted. If I came here to call for support for the bill, you might have a point, but I didn't.

Although I will tell you something else, a completely personal aside that you can take as you will, Harry Reid and I haven’t always walked lockstep in the tactics of how to change the Iraq debate, but the depth of his feeling that this Iraq policy is tragically wrong is something as sincere and genuine as it comes. Look at Harry Reid’s face, he wears the anguish of this war for everyone to see, and he cares as deeply as anyone about forcing a change of course. He has more quiet determination than anyone about seeing this through.
by John Kerry on Thu May 24, 2007 at 02:18:20 PM PDT

And this "Never forget" in answer to someone who is frustrated over more dying soldiers:

Thank you (7+ / 0-)
The only reason that people get so upset, is that troops and innocents are dying in the time it takes to get things done. That fact just never goes away. It's always in the back of our heads, always. If you are like me and know people who lost their lives in Iraq, and I have no doubt you do sir, then you know that the pain never goes away - and the delays in ending the war just create more dead bodies and more people with a hole in their heart, where their friends' life used to be.Cheers, keep fighting!
by cycloptichorn on Thu May 24, 2007 at 09:19:38 AM PDT

Never forget (14+ / 0-)
Never out of my thoughts, and never will be. It hurts like hell to go to some of the funerals I’ve been to, more and more as this war goes on. Those faces at Walter Reed never leave your thoughts either. You bet this is personal. I've seen what happens in war; I know what it's like, I’ve seen my friends wear it for the rest of their lives, and I have friends I loved who never got to grow old the way I did.. It's exactly for that reason that I fight for this.
by John Kerry on Thu May 24, 2007 at 02:12:06 PM PDT

-----------------------------

We discussed this all as well in the DU JK group and here are some reactions from my fellow Kerrycrats over there (sorry guys, but I just had to post this here!) :

beachmom in regard to these comments from Kerry:
...they're so poignant. I can't believe this man almost made it to the WH. The Oval Office would have been GRACED with him. John Kerry is the exception in my lifetime -- the only person I voted for president that had so much integrity, decency, grit, and, yes, grace.

fedupinBushcountry:
He is speaking from his heart and gut - this country is missing out on so much. IMO there is no politician that can ever top him.

I wholeheartedly agree with both of them. We later had a "Thank you, John Kerry" thread and I wrote the following:

Thank you, John Kerry, for keeping the image of the "other America" alive!

I can't tell you how often in the past 5 years I came close to give up on the USA. That I still like your country, that I still have hope for your country and its people, that's all thanks to you! I took an interest in politics a long time ago here in Europe and have seen a lot over the years. And sometimes, rarely but sometimes, there were politicians I really liked, but I never thought that I could admire a politician as much as I admire you. I never believed in role-models and now I'm too old to start with this stuff. *g* But if I'm asked today if there is some person in the world I can look up to, I won't hesitate a second to name you.

I hope that other people in the world have the same view on you and your country as you meet and met with a lot of foreign government officials who seem to trust you more than they trust the Bush regime. I can't help but think that over the years you have helped creating a kind of parallel US foreign policy, and I'm glad to see you involved with the "American Security Project". I'm sure that whatever will happen in the next years and whoever will become the next US president, you will continue to work relentlessly to restore the America we all knew and liked before Bush came to power, and I can't thank you enough for that.

Finally, in the afternoon, John Kerry came to the Senate floor and (as in response to my earlier blog post) he said the following:

I think in the last week or two, I've been to 3 funerals, Mr. President. One funeral, the son of a man who has opposed the war, a military man, a West Pointer himself, a man who gave us his career. But he's opposed to this war. And he dared to use the word to me in a conversation on the very day his son was being buried about how it was important for us to redouble our efforts here in the Senate, to bring this to a close. How it was important for us not to allow these young men and women to have their lives wasted; a word that if any politician used, we'd be pilloried for. The father of a man who was being buried used that word on the very day his son was being buried.

globalvillage has the full videos of JK's speech up on YouTube :
(check her channel, she has much more amazing videos!)

Thanks again, John Kerry, for being this man of integrity and honor you have always been. Keep fighting, Senator!

Reflections on America: The Wars

2007-05-21T04:55:00.000-07:00

Today I will start a series of critical reflections on the USA and the first part will be about America's wars.

I just read a Daily Kos diary about the comparison between Vietnam and Iraq and yesterday on CNN I heard a very strange Republican presidential candidate say some interesting things. Ron Paul (whose name - honestly! - I had never heard before and who seems to be hated by most Republicans) thinks that the Iraq war was wrong, is a disaster and the USA should pull out. Asked by the CNN journalist what the USA should do in a scenario where North Korea attacks South Korea or China attacks Taiwan, he insisted that this shouldn't necessarily be a US problem. He thinks that Korea would be reunited like Vietnam, weren't it for the US presence in the south, and that the USA didn't intervene in the Russian-Chechen war, so why should they intervene in a Chinese-Taiwanese conflict. With one sentence: The USA isn't a world police.

Of course, after the two World Wars that's exactly the role the USA found themselves in and especially Europe during the Cold War was comfortable with that. The unofficial title of the US president as "leader of the free world" speaks for itself. (How ironic now to give this title to Bush of all people. But that's another story.) The USA became a superpower but with this status came arrogance.

Then came these proxy-wars against Communism and things became less clear. In this Washington Post article mentioned in the diary I earlier talked about, the similarities between Vietnam and Iraq are stunning. How can a country make the same mistakes over and over again? Do they never learn from History?

A while ago my great blogger friend beachmom had a fantastic diary on Daily Kos that really showed where the problem lies. As the superpower USA can't loose a war militarily, it must be lost morally at home. It's all the fault of the American people who didn't believe in the Vietnam war anymore and who don't believe in the Iraq war now. That's the famous "Dolchstosslegende" ("Stabbed in the Back") used by Hindenburg to explain Germany's defeat in World War I. Well, the result was Germany's Word War II. The Germans learned it the hard way that this was bullshit. But they learned it. What's about the USA? How many Koreas, Vietnams, Somalias, Afghanistans and Iraqs do they need to learn it?

America is no world police and shouldn't try to be. And especially not in the imperialistic and fascist way, George W. Bush starts his preemptive wars. And another question occurs: Why don't Democratic politicians use this frank talk that Ron Paul used? Well, I know it's not popular. When Harry Reid said that the Iraq war is lost he was immediately attacked, when Barack Obama and John McCain talked about "soldiers' lives wasted", they had to apologize. They can't tell the truth because they would be called un-american or unpatriotic. What an idiocy! That's part of these "stabbed in the back" excuses.

I'm always amazed to hear John Kerry's answers when he is asked if it means that he doesn't support the troops when he calls for a withdrawal from Iraq. Okay, these questions asked by so-called journalists who are nothing else than propaganda tools for the Bush regime are more than stupid. When Kerry answers that he supports the troops by seeking a diplomatic solution for Iraq and the region, I'm sure he means what he says. Or at least, he meant it in '04 and until a while ago. But does he still mean it? Maybe he is the eternal optimist and really does. But aren't we at a point now where nobody can deny anymore that this war is just lost and no measures - diplomatic, military or whatsoever - can avoid the down-slide into total chaos of Iraq and probably (God help us!) the surrounding countries. Why can't they just state the facts: The USA lost a war... again. Will it be the last one? Will they ever learn their lesson?

Book talk with the Kerrys in Cambridge, MA

2007-04-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

I had the honor and the pleasure to be in Cambridge, MA last Saturday, April 21st, when John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry presented their book This Moment on Earth and answered questions from the public. I won't write much about this amazing afternoon in the neighborhood of Harvard University because Kerstin over at the John Kerry Blog already did it so eloquently:

A MOMENT IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

However, here are a few pictures that I took during the event and a little music video made with some of my pictures:

Bush's image on German TV

2007-03-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

Well, everyone knows that Europeans don't like George W. Bush. That's nothing new. But I think it's funny to see how he is ridiculed on German TV. These are pictures from RTL, a private German TV station (from their late night news program "Nachtjournal" - and no, it's not comedy, it's a serious news program).

Sorry for the bad quality, but I took the snapshots directly from my TV screen.

Congratulations to Al Gore!

2007-03-01T07:29:00.000-08:00

He won an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth" and he really deserves it! He says that it's not a political issue but a moral issue and he is right. What this man has done to open the eyes of Americans and other people in the world to the climate crisis is unbelievable. Even George W. Bush can't deny Global Warming anymore. People here in Europe never understood that so many Americans stuck their heads in the sand and didn't want to see this problem. I remember discussions about this subject on French and German TV years ago.

And even if the politicians take some time to address these issues, people can start energy saving at home. As John Kerry said recently (BTW, he and his wife are writing a book about environmental issues as well):

In the last year Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" has brought the science of climate change to millions of Americans in a dramatic and persuasive way. It's terrific what he's done. Here's the bottom line: within the next decade, if we don't deal with global warming, our children and grandchildren will have to deal with global catastrophe. We need big changes to fix a big problem. We can't "middle" our way there.

As individuals, the change can be as simple as replacing traditional light bulbs with efficient fluorescents. In our communities we should require that new buildings include lights that turn off when people leave the room. We should follow the lead of Tokyo and their energy efficient escalators that shut off when they aren't being used. There are literally thousands of things to be done, too few of which we are being asked to do. Each of us can do something.

http://blog.johnkerry.com/2007/01/combating_global_warming.html

A personal experience I made in the USA: I spent several months with an American family in 2004/05, a liberal Californian family who voted for John Kerry and had no false religious or political reasons to deny Climate Change, and they didn't. But did that mean they stopped wasting energy? When they went out, they left all the lights in the house switched on, also the TV (not even on stand-by!), had always all the doors open, used the washing-machine several times a day just for some clothes, let the water running from the water-tap while doing something else in the kitchen, drove several times the day to the grocery or some other store because they didn't make a shopping-list, had a subscription to 20 or more magazines which arrived weekly, piled on the living room table and were seldom read. I tried to tell them that they wasted energy (and money!) but it's hard to get rid of these bad old habits, that's for sure.

For a lot of people here in Europe energy saving has become a natural thing to do. At least in my family (and that was already the case when I lived with my parents) we have these energy efficient light bulbs since I was a teenager. I can't even remember when exactly my dad brought them home for the first time. We always switch the lights off when we leave a room; that's an automatic reflex. We close the doors when we leave or enter a room to keep the heat in the room. We switch the heaters off when we don't use a room or leave for the day. We switch our electronic devices (TV, DVD player etc.) off when we don't use them - not leave them on stand-by. We use the washing machine, dryer, dish-washer etc. only for a full load and not several times a day. We use recycled paper for the printer, for letters and envelops etc. We bring our own bags when we go shopping because in many German and French supermarkets you don't get plastic bags anymore. We have several trash-bins to separate trash because it's recycled. These are just the small things you can do in your own household and it will save you not only energy but a lot of money as well. Just check your water and electricity bill and you will see it.

There is more to do, of course. And we have only 13 years left to change our behavior and save the world as we know if for our kids. Isn't that a really sad thing to realize. Only 13 years!

My friend Global Village from the John Kerry group at Democratic Underground made a wonderful video clip about Climate Change. You should watch it!

Links to
- An Inconvenient Truth
- John Kerry & Teresa Heinz Kerry: This Moment on Earth
- GlobalVillage's YouTube channel

3000

2006-12-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

I wish I could have started this blog on a high note today. But unfortunately it's not the case. On the last day of the year 2006, the number of American soldiers who died in Iraq has reached 3000.

And I have to make a big confession here today. When the Bush administration started the Iraq War in March 2003, I didn't feel sorry for the men and women in uniform fighting and dying in this war for Bush. I only felt for the Iraqi civilians who became casualties of war because the bombs and bullets missed their military targets or because they just were at the wrong place at the wrong time. This may sound harsh in the ears of American citizens standing behind their army, but the background I come from doesn't allow me to see anything positive in a war, especially in a war of choice. But this last years' submersion in American politics showed me clearly, that it was the choice of George W. Bush and not the choice of the American people.

March 2003, this was the moment I really began paying attention to American politics. Well, actually not for the very first time though. In 1990/91, back at college, we already had protested and marched through the streets of a German city in opposition to the Gulf War. But in March 2003 I switched my TV to CNN International and never stopped watching since. I was in complete shock and awe to see the Americans starting a war "just like that", "just because they can"... again!

As a German citizen, born and raised in the 1960s and 1970s with the guilt and the shame of the Nazi Regime and World War II fresh in our parents' and our teachers' minds, with Social-Democratic grand-parents who had been harassed and silenced by the Nazis and a father who had been sent to fight the last battles of this horrible war as a frightened 15 year old kid and who was more than glad to give the written and signed promise to the US Army that captured him, to never ever take up a weapon again, with this background, I couldn't be but "anti-war" and against the glorification of the military. "Patriotism" meant nothing to my generation of Germans in the 1970s and most of my male class-mates never joined the German army, the Bundeswehr (and Germany had and still has a draft), but opted out and did the prolonged civil service instead.

But back to George W. Bush's war or the Neo-Cons' war, call it what you want, but I don't call it the American people's war anymore. Learning more and more about American politics, first from TV (and CNNi isn't that bad), then from sites like Salon and the liberal blogosphere, and finally from the American people I met (and especially ONE American I met, John Kerry), I realized how Americans were manipulated by Bush and his cronies in supporting a war that led to 3000 brave and misguided young people dying in vain to satisfy Bush's and the Neo-Cons' fantasies. John Kerry's famous words from the Vietnam War era still sound so right today: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

I didn't know much about Vietnam before becoming familiar with John Kerry in early 2004. I was too young during the war to remember more than a few news flashes on a TV screen. But when I read up on John Kerry's life and watched the movies "Going Upriver" and "Brothers in Arms" it dawned to me how tragic this was. All these idealistic young men that thought they were fighting for a noble cause and that instead were played by cynical politicians with unfathomable objectives. These young people came home broken in their body and soul and were often abandoned by their government. And the whole sad story is happening now in Iraq all over again.

How, for God's sake, can the USA make the same mistake twice? Today I feel sorry for all Americans that were duped by Bush, all those who voted for him in 2000 and again in 2004 and regret it ever since. And especially for the soldiers who maybe signed up in the wave of patriotism that followed 9/11, only to find themselves in this unjust and unnecessary war in Iraq.

When I heard Cindy Sheehan's story in 2005, I cried for her and her son. She stands for all the families who lost a loved one in Iraq. Not everybody speaks out against the war, not everybody even realizes right now that the death of these young people doesn't make sense. But this time will come, I'm sure.

In honor of the 3000 American soldiers and - don't forget - in honor of the over 600,000 Iraqis that lost their lives since the war began, here is my "Running Out of Heroes" anti-war video again, inspired by John Kerry's protest against the Vietnam War and now against the Iraq war, inspired by angry Americans like Cindy Sheehan and many, many others.