Dennis Kucinich and His Excellency

This video makes me sick. Truly.

On Syrian TV, Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich discusses his recent meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He degrades President Bush. He smears the accomplishments of the troops.

It is positively disgusting. Kucinich rattles off the usual Dem talking points. It's not like I haven't heard it all before, but there's something extremely disturbing about the images of him slamming the country with the Arabic subtitles crawling at the bottom of the frame.

Knowing that our brave military men and women are in the region, fighting for our country, and hearing Kucinich prattle on about Bush's lies makes me nauseous. This man is a presidential candidate!

This interview displays just how despicable the Democrats are.

KUCINICH: Well, of course, my presence in Syria, in meeting with President Assad, is so that people are aware that there are members of Congress, and in this case, a presidential candidate, who believes that Syria has a very important role to play in bringing about stability, in participating in a political process, which will help create the conditions which can lead to peace.

But this must come about from communication, and so those of us who want to see this change are in a position to model the change that we hope to occur.

So it was important to meet with his Excellency to exchange views as to how we can create a more peaceful world.

INTERVIEWER: So, how did the meeting go?

KUCINICH: It was a meeting where President Assad showed a real desire to play a role in helping to create a peaceful settlement of the conditions in Iraq, as well as a grander approach towards creating peace. So it was a very important meeting, and I felt honored to have the chance to speak with him.

KUCINICH: But I love my country, and I want my country to be loved by the world.

INTERVIEWER: Which is not happening at the moment.

KUCINICH: I know and that hurts me. It hurts my heart to know how America is seen in places around the world right now. But in my own way, I'm trying to change that, and the best way that we can change that is by telling the truth.

The truth is the war was wrong.

The truth is that great damage and harm has been done to the Iraqi people.

The truth is that we have to find a way to heal that.

The truth is that we have to reach out to the world to get help.

And so all those things are what I try to do to follow the path of the truth, and I think that as America shows its goodness once again, we can cause the world to love America once again. And that's what I'm about.

KUCINICH: The fact of the matter is we are all being weakened by continuing a war that's based on a lie. This war was based on lies. Iraq didn't have the weapons of mass destruction. It wasn't connected to 9/11. It had nothing to do with al Qaeda's role in 9/11. What are we there for?

So I have stood up repeatedly and said: "Look, stop the war." Once the war started: "Here's that plan to get out, and stop funding the war."

And so we've had many opportunities now, and I think it's very clear that we now have to focus on a peace plan, reach out to the world community, and that can only happen with those of us who are involved in the process meeting with people to see if there is an interest.

And I'll tell you, President Assad, today, indicated a very strong interest in playing a role to help bring about stability in Iraq, and the fact of the matter is -- whether the Bush administration wants to admit it or not -- that President Assad is actually helping by providing a sanctuary to which Iraqi refugees can come.

This is a great humanitarian crisis that's been created by this war. And Syria is one of the few countries in the world who has opened its arms to the Iraqi refugees, who have come here with only the clothes on their back, and looking for a way to survive. It is an extraordinary gesture on the part of the Syrian government that they would provide an opportunity for people to save their lives.

And so this is something that I think needs to be recognized. And it also shows that here is a man, President Assad, who should be respected and appreciated for the role that he has played.

INTERVIEWER: So does George Bush actually not see himself as having failed in Iraq? Does he thing that he has done something right?

KUCINICH: I would expect that he probably believes that he's done the right thing.... And of course, this part of the tragedy -- that our president is not understanding the mountain of evidence which indicates what a failure the policy in Iraq has been. Not only failure but how totally wrong it was from the beginning. Because you can talk about something being a failure and perhaps the cause may have been correct. But in this case, the cause was wrong from the beginning.

In the Christian Bible, there is a phrase that says: "That which is crooked cannot be made straight."

The effort against Iraq was dishonest, or crooked, from the beginning, and nothing good can come from it, except: The international community is needed to become involved to put together a peace-keeping and security force that can move in as the U.S. determines that it must end the occupation, close the bases, bring the troops home.

That's the direction we must take. But we have to understand that the policy was based on a lie.

I hear this from the Dems all the time. This stuff shouldn't shock me anymore, but for some reason this really bothers me. Maybe it's watching the video after watching the Democrats rip at Gen. Petraeus that has me less tolerant of the Dems' slime.

Kucinich has disgraced himself.

Worse, he disgraced the troops; just like every other Democrat who has besmirched the character of Gen. Petraeus, leader of those brave troops honorably serving and carrying out their mission in Iraq.