John Edwards has launched a new protest scheduled for Memorial day, this coming weekend. “There’s another thing we need to do as patriots, to serve the men and women who are serving this country in Iraq, and that is to speak out this weekend,” said Edwards. He has a new ad on his websight talking about protest. He is prodding Congress to continue bringing up legislation to end the war in Iraq. In a town hall meeting Edwards said, “The fact that we have a bullheaded, stubborn president who thinks he can do nothing wrong makes it more important, more imperative that we stand our ground against this president.” There are some who say that scheduling his protest during Memorial Day is in bad taste. Paul Morin, national commander of the American Legion, called the request “as inappropriate as a political bumper sticker on an Arlington headstone.” They feel this should be a day of reflection, and not a day for political bantering and protest. John Edwards has a plan he thinks will end the war in Iraq, and he said, “America has to be a force for good. … The world thinks we’re a bully and we’re selfish.” But he also realizes you can’t just pull out the troops and expect Iraq to be OK. Edwards said, “The president of the United States should prepare a strategic plan for containment of a civil war.” He also wants to bring back mandatory service for everyone, “One of the things we ought to be thinking about is some level of mandatory service to our country, so that everybody in America , not just the poor kids who get sent to war, are serving this country,” he said. He later backtracked and said it wasn’t just the poor serving our country now, but that, “What we want to do is to have all Americans to have a chance to serve their country.” We all need a chance to go to places like Iraq, then maybe we wouldn’t be so willing to get involved as quickly. It is interesting to hear a candidate call for mandatory service, when he himself didn’t have time to serve since he was to busy going to law school.
Alan Cosgrove
Here is the John Edwards message promoting protest on Memorial Day;