Why don't the pundits consider Kucinich a serious candidate?

He's the only one who has said what he would do.


From the Congressional Record, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, February 14, 2007

The War is Binding, the Resolution is Not

As Congress prepares to debate a nonbinding resolution on Iraq, this
Administration is already on its way to the next war, against Iran. We are
losing our democracy to war and massive debt. Our political climate is
poisoned by fear and suspicion, our civil liberties have been undermined.
The American people need Congress to stand up and save our nation.

Some call this resolution a first step toward getting out of Iraq. I would
like to believe that. I would like to believe that this Congress can
respond to the will of the people expressed in the last election. I would
like to believe that my party will lead the way out of Iraq, the same way
we led people to believe last November that we opposed the war.

The American people believed us in November. They expect us to take real
action, not with symbolic, non-binding votes but by fully asserting our
constitutional responsibility to take action to get out of Iraq. Congress
can take America out of Iraq by refusing to provide any more funding for
the war. That is our right. And that is our duty. We have a duty to be a
co-equal branch of government. We have a duty to restrain an
Administration which is conducting an illegal war. We have a duty to hold
to an accounting a President and a Vice President that sent us into a war
based on untruths.

I led the effort against the Iraq war resolution. With unanimous consent I
ask to put into the record an analysis of the President's war resolution
presented to Congress in October of 2002, where it was pointed out that
there was no proof that Iraq posed an imminent threat, no proof that it
had Weapons of Mass Destruction at the ready, no proof it had anything to
do with 911 or Al Queda's role in 911. It is not as if we had no idea.

Despite that fact that 60% of our Democratic Caucus voted against the war,
the resolution passed. The war was based on lies. Now we must tell the
truth, not about escalation but about the occupation. We are illegally
occupying Iraq. We attacked a nation which did not attack us. The only
moral thing to do now is to recognize the wrong which has been done and to
move to right it.

Since some have made it clear that this will continue to fund the war what
in fact does this resolution mean? If we have already told the President
that Congress will give him a supplemental appropriation for the War, what
does this resolution mean?

The war is binding. The resolution is not. This resolution will not end
the war. It will not bring our troops home. It will not even stop the
administration from sending more troops. That is because this resolution
is non binding.

The war is binding. The resolution is not. 3,100 hundred troops are bound
in death. 650,000 innocent Iraqi civilians are bound in death.

The war is binding the resolution is not. The American taxpayers are bound
in debt. This war could cost over $2 trillion dollars according to Nobel
Prize- winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. We are bound to more foreign
debt, borrowing money from China, Korea and Japan to fight a war in
Baghdad. As a result of the massive spending in Iraq, our domestic policy
is bound to oblivion. Money for housing, health care and education is
being cut to pay for the war.

Every time Congress votes to fund the war, it votes to reauthorize the
war. Federal court cases have made it abundantly clear that Congress' real
power is to cut off funds. Money is in the system to bring the troops home.
We should be approaching the White House, not with nonbinding resolutions
but with the resolve that binds the Administration to a new direction: Out
of Iraq. That is exactly what the twelve point plan I have been discussing
with members of congress will accomplish. This plan, crafted with the help
of experts in international peace keeping, specialists with UN experience
and veteran military advisers, creates a peace process which will enable
our troops to come home and stabilize Iraq with international peace
keepers.

The Kucinich Plan:

1 The US announces it will end the occupation, close military bases and
withdraw.

2 The US announces it will use existing funds to bring the troops and the
necessary equipment home.

3 Order a simultaneous return of all US contractors to the US and turnover
all contracting work to the Iraqi government.

4 Convene a regional conference for the purpose of developing a security
and stabilization force for Iraq.

5 Prepare an international security and peacekeeping force to move in,
replacing US troops who then return home.

6 Develop and fund a process of reconciliation.

7 Reconstruction and jobs.

8 Reparations

9 Political sovereignty for Iraq: not privatization of Iraq's oil assets.


10 Stabilize and keep low Iraq's energy and food prices.

11 Economic sovereignty for Iraq, without structural readjustment measures
of IMF and the World Bank.

12 A process of international truth and reconciliation between the United
States and the people of Iraq.

We must take a new direction. The war is binding. The resolution isn't.
This Administration cares little about Congress' opinion in a non-binding
resolution, but they care plenty about what we do. This resolution is
about what congress thinks. What we need to do is cutoff funds for the
war, with the simultaneous implementation of the plan I have presented.
This is the way to peace in Iraq.