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Edwards: "Be Smart"

May 21, 2007 7:59 AM

Concord Monitor
May 21, 2007

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards jabbed at President Bush and made promises to change military policy during an appearance at Keene State College yesterday.

He also made stops in Claremont and Lebanon as he began a week of events leading up to Memorial Day, which he has urged people to use as a day to support the troops by calling for them to be brought home.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and vice presidential nominee, said the United States needs to push for a political resolution in Iraq by removing troops and pressuring Iran to help stabilize the country. Like Iraq, Iran has a Shiite Muslim majority. But the greater Muslim world has a Sunni majority. Edwards said those factors mean it is in both countries' best interest to prevent an Iraqi civil war from spilling over to the rest of the Middle East.

"It requires us to do something that Bush is not going to do, which is to be smart," Edwards said. The crowd of more than 150 people, which included few students, laughed.

Edwards said he would close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay "the first day I am sworn in as president."

"How the United States of American can just hold anybody we have labeled without giving them a hearing . . . that's just un-American," he said. "That's not who we are." On issues including the war, genocide in Darfur and global warming, Edwards said the country must "establish our moral identity in the world, which has been so devastated."

"The world thinks we're a bully, and they think we're selfish," he said.

Matthew Saxton of Alstead told Edwards he is frustrated by airport security regulations and the culture of fear that he said they represent.

"We're being treated as though there's a terrorist around every corner, that we should prepare," he said.

Edwards said there is a proliferation of "political-based fearmongering."

The president is telling the public, "You stay home, you watch television, and Dick Cheney and I will keep you safe," he said.

But, Edwards said, the American people have a history of striving for change on their own, rather than leaving the work to their leaders. Modern causes, including the civil rights movement, the push to end apartheid in South Africa and protests of the Vietnam War, "didn't start in the oval office," he said. "They started out here."

He repeated his oft-cited call to action "to be patriotic about something other than war" and to take bold steps toward change.

"If you're looking for careful, I'm not your guy," he said.

Edwards is expected to announce his policy to change the national security strategy during a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York tomorrow. He will release his ideas for altering veteran support systems later in the week.

He previewed the latter yesterday, saying veterans returning from Iraq need more resources for vetting their mental and physical health needs and for helping them transition into family life and jobs more easily. He said the government should help pay child-care costs for the children of deployed soldiers, and he said the Department of Veterans Affairs needs more secure revenue sources.

"I think it says something about us as a nation - how we treat the men and women who have served us in the past and who are serving us now," he said.

Frank Fisk, an Air Force veteran, said after the event that he likes Edwards's ideas to provide more for young veterans.

"What I needed I could get," Fisk said. "Nowadays, what veterans need they may be lucky to get part of."

 

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Q&A: Educational Disparity
John Edwards answers a question about educational disparity at Hanover Middle School in Hanover, N.H. on September 27, 2007

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