Mark Gabrish Conlan (transcriber) | 17.08.2003 15:56

Transcript of U.S. Congressmember and Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's speech in San Diego August 4. Kucinich advocates a 15 percent cut in the U.S. defense budget, worldwide nuclear disarmament, repeal of the USA PATRIOT Act (which he voted against in the first place) and a foreign policy based on sustainability and respect for the world community.

Dennis Kucinich at Salvation Army Joan Kroc Center, San Diego, August 4, 2003

Dennis Kucinich: Thank you, thank you, San Diego! [Sings:} Oh say, does that star-spangled banner still wave/O?er the land of the free and the home of the brave? [Speaks:] Courage, America! Courage, America! This is the time for America to make the connection once again between freedom and bravery. This is the time to hear the deeper meaning of the words of Francis Scott Key, when he called us to get the essential connection between courage and democracy. This is the time when Americans need to regain their courage, regain their courage at a time of fear.

A pall of fear is wrapped over this country. This blanket has been placed by an administration that used the tragedy of 9/11 to run an agenda of fear against this country, and to wage war against a nation that did not attack us. Courage, America! It?s time to confront the mistakes and the lies of the Bush administration and regain our country!

We understand that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11; between Iraq and al-Qaeda?s role in 9/11; between Iraq and the anthrax attack on this country. We know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. They had no connection with Niger in trying to obtain uranium. We know that Iraq in fact had no intention to attack this country, nor any capability to do so.

Now we also know that this administration is sitting on 28 redacted pages of documents concerning 9/11, where they do not want the American people to know the truth. They do not want the American people to know the truth because they have been responsible ? this administration has been responsible ? for perpetuating a fiction in this country over the last year and a half, a fiction that somehow it was Iraq that represented a threat, when the truth is this administration that represents a threat to the security of this country. Stand up for the defense of our country!

I see in this audience the patriots for peace. This administration has confused patriotism. It has tried to raise patriotism in the service of war, when true patriots have come to the defense of their country to insist that there was no cause of war. This administration has no right to place the men and women of this country at risk, and to place innocent civilians abroad at risk.

We have to regard what?s happened in this country in the last year and a half very carefully, because amidst the fear in Washington, the fear that has caused concrete barriers to be placed in walkways; the fear that has placed sentinels, armed with automatic weapons, outside our government buildings; the fear that has caused metal detectors to be put in government buildings; the fear that has caused people in camouflage, in military camouflage, outside of white marble buildings; the fear that led our administration to propose that we could become safer if only we purchased enough duct tape; the fear which gave us this Crayola of threat levels, so we could know when we would be safe and not safe; the fear which caused this administration to bring to the floor of the House of Representatives a bill entitled the PATRIOT Act, which most members of Congress did not even have the time to read.

It was brought in late at night, a stack of legislative proposals about this high, and by the evening?s end the House of Representatives enacted a law which essentially repealed various provisions of our Bill of Rights. The fear which caused this administration to create an entire new federal department, the Department of Homeland Security, which we are told is going to make us oh so safe, perhaps 10, 20, 30 years from now when their left hand understands what their right hand is doing. Oh, yes, the fear that has thrown 170,000 employees in one department to give the appearance of providing the people of the United States the appearance of having security. Color-coded threat systems to give us the appearance of having security.

And yet, we understand that we?re not more secure as a nation. We?re a nation that has lost its sense of optimism; lost our sense of joy about connecting with people in other countries; lost our appreciation for the real, deep meaning of ?government of the people.? And so we are at this moment when we have it within our power to reclaim who we are as a nation; to reclaim that sense of optimism that is so quintessentially American; to reclaim that sense of joy that comes from connecting with the world community in the common cause of humanity; to reclaim that sense of courage which causes us to face each day confident.

This is the time. This is the time, my fellow Americans. And you, you are the ones that we?ve been waiting for. So what we are called upon to do at this moment, what we must do at this moment, is to re-empower ourselves; to create conditions where we can reclaim that which moves us as Americans in the world. And to do that, we need to break this spell of fear. We need to en-courage each other. We need to stand up and to speak out and to challenge a government which has taken this country on a wrong path, and it?s our responsibility to set this country in the right path again!

We can reclaim this country! How, then, can we do this? How can we break this spell of fear? Well, there are steps that must be taken, and as the next President of the United States I will work with you to lead this country in a new direction which helps to break the fear in this country and the world, by working towards total nuclear disarmament. It is time, and it is time for America to rejoin the world community in the cause of world harmony by signing the biological weapons convention, the chemical weapons convention, the small arms treaty, the landmine treaty, and join the International Criminal Court. It is time for equal justice under the law all over this world!

It?s time, and it?s time, America, to step forward and join the world in the cause of sustainability and protecting the life on this planet, and we can begin by signing the Kyoto climate-change treaty! It is time! And as we rejoin the world community, we make this a safer nation, because it is only international cooperation which can set America back on the path of security. How much better it would have been if we would have met the challenge of 9/11 by cooperating with the world community in the cause of international justice. How much better it would have been if this administration had not pursued the cause of war against a nation which did not attack us, and was in no way connected to 9/11, and in no way represented a threat to this country.

How much better it would have been if America would have simply worked with the United Nations, supported the process of the United Nations, supported the inspections of the United Nations, to have the United Nations inspectors find out what we?re now finding out at the cost of many lives of innocent civilians and the men and women who serve this country, that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that represented a threat to this nation! How much better it would have been had we worked with the world community.

We understand that we are at a turning moment in human history, where people all over the world are yearning to come together. We can feel this pulsation. We know it from our visits to other countries prior to this awful moment of the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. We know it from our friendships with other countries. We know that the world is interconnected and interdependent, and that the advancing tide in the world is towards human unity. We know that. We?ve seen representations of it.

Oh, we were told that when the new millennium came, that we should be so afraid because there was going to be violence all over the world. You remember the predictions. And yet we saw, in city after city around the world, people coming together joyously, celebrating their humanity. The advancing tide is towards human unity. The advancing tide is towards people coming together. As the next President of the United States, I intend to set aside doctrines of unilateralism and pre-emption and first strike and using nuclear weapons, which separate us from the world community. It?s time once again to rejoin the world community in the cause of lifting up humanity, in the cause of a new era of peace and in the cause of a new era of social and economic justice. And we can help lead the way to achieve it! Courage, America!

It is only if we come to understand our connection to the entire world that the deeper meaning of the American Revolution can continue its message of liberty and light throughout the world. Because what we?re called upon to connect with there is a sense of who we are as Americans, because the questions that this administration has posed in the last few months really reflect deeper questions about who we are. We need to think about who we are as a nation, because that?s ? by connecting with those principles, those foundational principles ? that?s our way out of this mess.

By connecting with the principle of equality; by remembering, ?We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union;? by remembering the work of democracy is evolutionary. The American Revolution left us a legacy as long as we keep the evolution going. And we are at an evolutionary moment, I would suggest. We?re at a moment when we get to consciously choose what kind of country we are.

If we choose to continue the path that we are on, we will have a country of perpetual war. We will have a country of fear. We will have a country where the wealth is distributed to the top. We will have a country that destroys the middle class. We will have a country where our children will not get the education that we want them to have. We will have a country where people will not have health care.

But we can choose another path, and the other path, which is part of our own re-empowerment and re-connection to this idea of our capacity for a more perfect union, is to choose a country which is dedicated to lifting up the human condition; to choose a country which can provide health care for all, education for all, jobs for all, a clean environment for all, peace for all and sustainability for all. It?s the same epiphany and connection with the world. We can do that! We can make that choice! Are you ready to make that choice?

Each day, when I walk up the steps of the House of Representatives to go vote, I walk between these large pillars that support this overhanging roof of the House. And inside the overhang is a pediment, and there is a sculpture inside this structure. And it?s a sculpture which represents something that is an essential reflection of who we are as a nation. I would imagine that, of the millions of people who pass under that sculpture every year, some of them have a chance to reflect on it.

But at the apex of this sculpture, as if to signify what?s at the center of our national experience, is a statue of a woman whose arm is outstretched. And she is protecting a child who is blissfully sitting atop a stack of books. And the title of that sculpture, the title is ?Peace, Protecting Genius.? Peace, protecting genius not with nuclear arms, but with the arms of maternal love. By a nurturing arm is the child Genius protected.

The genius of our children, the genius that would unfold and represent the future of this nation, can only have a chance to come forward in a climate dedicated to peace; in a climate which is attuned to our highest principles; in a climate that we, the people of the United States, can consciously work to re-create; in a climate that we help to shape and reshape through our involvement as citizens of a democracy; in a climate that we can help to shape during an election year, when we have a chance to redirect the fortunes of our nation.

For peace protecting genius is the path towards the future. It?s a path towards reclaiming our role in the world. It?s a path towards reclaiming the possibilities of social and economic justice in America. It?s a path towards reclaiming the optimism which we know we have as Americans. It?s a path towards breaking the fear. It?s the path towards reclaiming our nation! Courage, America! Courage, America! Courage, America! Thank you.

[There followed a fundraising appeal by event chair Nancy Casady, which Kucinich acknowledged in his remarks as he began a question-and-answer period.] O.K., as we begin, I?ll try to move through these as quickly as possible. But I want to say that having crossed the country and having so many people make appeals on my behalf, really, I?ve never seen someone as powerful as direct. And I just learned something! And the other thing here, as I was speaking, I?m hearing the audience participate. And I like San Diego. I like your style here. Talk about a community of activists!

Questioner: Dennis, welcome to San Diego. I saw a question-and-answer period the other night on Bill Moyers? program, and it was a fellow who just retired from the Pentagon [former defense analyst Chuck Spinney; NOW with Bill Moyers, August 1, 2003], and he had some most disturbing information about the incredible budgets, $2 to $3 billion, that are being wasted every year by the Pentagon for frivolous spending and purchasing weapons that we don?t need. I?d like to have you speak to that, and I also have a video for you that might help you a little bit on the 9/11 question.

Kucinich: O.K. Let me speak to the issue ?

Questioner: Please, please, please see the video too.

Kucinich: I will, and I thank you. The ? let me speak to this issue about the Pentagon budget, because it is one of the most significant issues in this election. We spoke earlier about the fear that has percolated throughout this country. Well, one outgrowth of that fear has been the 13 percent increase in the Pentagon budget, and that now puts us close to $400 billion a year for the Pentagon. That is more for military spending than all the other nations of the world put together. This increase in the Pentagon expenditure occurred at the same time the government cut $25 billion in veterans? benefits; cut $10 billion from the ?No Child Left Behind? [fund]; cut one-third of the budget, so it?s only one-third of the children left behind, you see; cut funds for health care.

And what?s happening here is that there is an accelerated transition in our society away from social spending, towards the military, which brings with it not only a militarization of thought in this country, a militarization of our dialogue, and erosion of our civil liberties, but it also brings with it the absolute certainty that we are going to have more wars. Because what is that Pentagon budget, as it grows, except a justification for more war? And they need war in order to justify more [defense] spending.

As the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the Pentagon, over national defense/national security, I sit in meetings all the time where we review reports from the Inspector General and from the General Accounting Office on the Department of Defense. Let me give you a few interesting factoids. The Pentagon has over $1 trillion in accounts that are not reconciled. $1 trillion. The Pentagon no longer does audits. That?s right, they don?t have auditors now. They?re not doing audits. I mean, even Enron had auditors. They were crooked, but at least they had auditors. We don?t even have them!

So ? now, why can they get away with that? They can get away with it because of the fear. As the next President, let me tell you what I intend to do. I intend to move to strike a minimum of 15 percent out of that $400 billion budget, between $60 billion, and put it into an educational program. For $60 billion we can have every child aged 3, 4 and 5 have the opportunity to go to universal pre-kindergarten five days a week; and for those parents who understand that the cost of day care costs more than a college education in some cases, this would be a powerful option ? and an option that would be wholesome, that would enable our children to get an early start. Peace protecting genius.

The direction that we have to take in this Pentagon budget includes things like this ? and this answer is a little bit long, but it?s essential so you know the specific. Here are the programs I intend to cancel. I intend to cancel a program which calls for the construction of a so-called ?National Missile Defense? ? which, by the way, is predicated on World War III; and, by the way ? let?s say in this audience there are people who believe, who really believe, that we need a National Missile Defense, we need a missile shield.

Well, I want to break some bad news to you. The tests that they?ve done on this ? they?ve been faked. They faked them. I sat on a committee meeting and asked one of the generals, when I saw this [video of] a missile hit another missile in space, I said, ?Let me ask you something. Did you have a homing beacon on that missile? You know, like an electronic ?Kick me? sign?? ?Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did. We just wanted to show you what it might look like.? ?O.K. It?s worth $10 billion to me!? So that program is gone.

The next program that?s gone is the program that puts weapons in space. Now, are there any ophthalmologists in the audience? O.K. Well, we all appreciate an ophthalmologist because they help us achieve 20/20 vision. There are people in Washington, when they speak of ?20/20 Vision,? or ?Vision 20/20,? they?re talking about a program to put weapons in space. Why? As the promotional literature says, ?America will achieve the ultimate high ground.? Great. And that?s what it says, ?Vision 20/20.? Weapons in space, so we can just rule the world. ?If I ruled the world ? ? No, anyhow. So what?s wrong with the thinking here? I?m going to make sure that we cancel that program.

There?s another program that people are talking about. As we?re meeting here today, there?s a meeting getting ready to be held in Omaha, Nebraska at the Strategic Air Command, and this meeting is of all these top-level people from the Pentagon and the administration. And they?re talking about producing a new generation of nuclear weapons. Yeah. That?s gone. I mean, no more nuclear weapons. No more arms race. We can?t tell North Korea and India and Pakistan not to do it if we?re doing it, and so that ends.

I can spend the rest of the time here tonight talking about the defense budget, but just remember this: that I?m the only candidate in this race who can ? who can not only categorically define why we must cut back that Pentagon budget, but I?m the only candidate running for President who?s pledging to do it. Sorry for so long a response. Go ahead.

Questioner: Thank you, sir, very much for coming to San Diego. I?d like to ask a very practical nuts-and-bolts question. In the 2000 election, a lot of the evidence says that about 50,000 voters [were] disenfranchised in Florida. They were legally registered voters, by manipulation taken off the voter rolls. Be that as it may, whether that turned the election or not, how are we to believe that in the forthcoming election we can keep it honest?

Kucinich: That?s a question I get all over the country. Let me tell you some of the things that I?m getting ready to do. When I return to Washington in September I?ll be introducing a bill that is aimed at trying to resolve some of these concerns that have come up because private companies are making the software to run elections. We?re going to outlaw that. The software has to be made by the government; it has to be transparent; it has to leave a paper trail; and there has to be a way to turn it off. We won?t let this election be stolen, and there?s going to be such a large turnout that the result won?t be in doubt!

Questioner: Thank you so much for voting against the PATRIOT Act. How do you think your colleagues will respond to PATRIOT II [the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, developed by the U.S. Justice Department, leaked to the media in February 2003 and not yet formally introduced to Congress]?

Kucinich: Well, first of all the good news is that, again, when I return to Washington in the fall I?ll be introducing legislation to repeal the PATRIOT Act. And two weeks ago in Washington we had a good sign ? and you should remember this. To members of Congress, who were really stampeded into voting for the PATRIOT Act ? it was a climate of fear that was created [which] affected members of Congress ? two weeks ago, myself and a Republican Congressmember from the West by the name of Otto, Congressmember Otto, and [Vermont] Congressmember [Bernie] Sanders, came together on an amendment that was the first step in the direction of repeal of the PATRIOT Act.

What it was, was an amendment on a bill that for the first time put Congress on record as striking the section of the PATRIOT bill that gave the government the ability to go in and search someone?s premises without handing them a warrant. Now, that?s the first good sign that we can turn this around. And it passed by a 3-to-1 margin! Yes, yes, yes! So if any of that PATRIOT Act is in fact left by the time the next election rolls around ? and I expect it will be ? I expect to have the Justice Department go immediately to federal court to strike it down because it?s in violation of the Bill of Rights, and we?re going to reclaim our civil liberties for this country!

Questioner: What will you do to get the terrible amount of money out of campaign finance? What are you planning to do about that, get our corporations? money out of our legislators? pockets?

Kucinich: The Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo [1976], which equated free speech and money, was a travesty for this country because it empowered corporations to continue to buy the election process. Our government is available right now for sale to the highest bidder. How can we change that? We must change it. The way I would change it, with your help, is that as President of the United States I will lead the way towards a Constitutional amendment which will outlaw corporate contributions and lay the groundwork for public financing only of our elections. Because private financing of elections [equals] private control of government. Public financing ? thank you.

Questioner: In view of the fact that the American people and the Congress were tricked into going to war in Iraq, and in view of the almost daily deaths and woundings of American servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq, are you in favor of withdrawal of American troops from Iraq immediately?

Kucinich: Yes, and let me tell you how to do it. First of all, I want to acknowledge the presence tonight of Mr. Su?rez [Fernando Su?rez del Sol?r, whose son Jes?s was killed in Iraq and who has spoken since at peace events and lost his job for doing so], who showed great courage in sharing his suffering. And tonight I would ask you, just for a moment, if you could join me in a moment of silence to pay tribute to the young men and women who, as a measure of devotion to this country, gave their lives. Just join me, just for a brief moment.

Thank you. Now let?s talk about what can be done. We know about the misdirection that occurred. We understand fully that this war ? if war could ever be righteous, this one was not. We understand, chapter and verse, how the American people have been misled by a president, a vice-president, a secretary of state, a secretary of defense, the national security advisor and all of their supporters inside the government.

We understand that our presence in Iraq at this very moment is a signal to the world of the colossal failure of government, not only to respond to the will of the people, which ought to derive from the consent of a well-informed public; but it was derived from greed, from warped ideological considerations. So the path forward, I believe, is this.

The United States must be ready to sit down and construct an agreement with the United Nations which puts the United Nations in control of the oil revenues of Iraq, the distribution of profits to the people of Iraq. Stop any privatization of the oil of Iraq. The United States must be prepared to go forward and put the handing-out of contracts in the hands of the United Nations. No more Halliburton cozy deals for Dick Cheney?s pocketbook.

The United States must be ready to go forward to put in the hands of the United Nations the construction of a new government in Iraq which will give the people of Iraq the chance to choose the government they want for themselves, not a puppet government chosen by this administration. The United States must put this together, and, my friends, it won?t take long to do it. And when we do it, it is time to say, ?U.N. in, U.S. out!? Thank you.

Questioner: My name is George Rockwood. I?m a former military intelligence officer. I?ve spent the majority of my adult life traveling with the U.S. Army about human rights activists. Today in Iraq, a number of U.S. soldiers stand accused of war crimes and human rights violations against POW?s. Even if they are found guilty, the odds are almost minimal that they will be held accountable for their crimes, because they?re due to leave military service. And there is no federal legislation to hold American citizens liable for war crimes after they leave the military.

As conservative Republicans and Democrats like Susan Davis worry about American military being brought before a foreign tribunal, as President, will you be in favor of legislation to hold American citizens accountable to the same standards of human rights and war-crimes accountability that we hold the rest of the world, in American courts?

Kucinich: I think we have to do it ? I think we have to do it in the International Criminal Court. And I think we also have to be prepared ? you know, I think this is an important issue because it really challenges our commitment to the concept of equal justice. And the United States, this administration, has tried mightily to defeat the International Criminal Court, to the point of threatening other nations that they?d better not sign the agreement.

And I think we understand now why they don?t want to be held accountable. They want to be a law unto themselves. They want to be able to wage illegal war and kill innocent people and send nations into ruin. Well, let me tell you this. As the next President I intend to make sure that the highest principles which we aspire to as a nation, the principles of justice, we will see justice in her position standing above the Supreme Court.

We?re going to remember what we stand for as a nation, and we?re going to have participation in the world community in the International Criminal Court, and we?re going to make every American accountable to the law. No one can be above the law of the nations, of the world, of humanity.

Questioner: First of all, I love you, Dennis. And I understand and I agree with everything you say, except there?s one thing that I don?t understand, and people are asking me. And that is you say it was wrong, it was not necessary, to invade Afghanistan, when they did attack us, and there were al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.

Kucinich: Well, let me say this: that Afghanistan ?

Questioner: I mean, al-Qaeda attacked us, and there were training camps in Afghanistan. So why was it not necessary to go in there and ?

Kucinich: There?s a difference between the United States using its military machine to bomb another nation, which we did ? I mean, remember we smoked the wedding party? I mean, we blew up a lot of innocent civilians with our bombs. We did not have to go in unilaterally. If we thought there was a cause of action, we should have worked with the world community. We could have done that. We chose not to.

And what I am saying is that if you?re tracking down criminals, you don?t use the most powerful weapon that a nation has. You use, first, diplomacy and working with other nations. We never even tried that. Furthermore, al-Qaeda was not the government of Afghanistan. The government of Afghanistan was in transition, and for a while we were holding hands with the government of Afghanistan because they were going to give us access for an oil pipeline.

So let?s remember this: that the United States, unfortunately, in this administration, has not had clean hands on any of their diplomacy. And therefore, the actions that have followed in response to whatever happened in this country have been tainted.

Questioner: I?m speaking as a former Air Force pilot who fought in the Viet Nam War, and I applaud your courage in seeking the truth and going after the Bush administration, and Cheney. And while we?re on the word ?courage,? I would like to ask for a pledge. I?m convinced that 9/11 was orchestrated to create a long war, and I ask you to promise that you will launch an investigation into that.

Kucinich: Well, let me speak first of all to the possibility that you suggest. I was in Washington on the day of 9/11. I was just walking behind the Capitol building when I was called to my office when the first plane struck. And I saw the second plane strike, which I suppose a lot of us did. I thought a lot about how it could have happened.

I don?t think ? my own opinion is I don?t think anybody in our government really had anything to do with planning this. I just refuse to believe that. But what I think we missed a chance to do ? and what I think could have happened ? we missed a very powerful opportunity on 9/11. We missed a chance to embrace the world community, which held out its heart to the United States.

We really missed an opportunity to heal this country, and instead we went into this drumbeat for war. War that was going to lead ? a war they had been after for some time, because at a meeting of the National Security Council the day after 9/11, Secretary Rumsfeld said, ?We could use this opportunity to go after Iraq.? Now, this is in a book, Bush at War, by Bob Woodward of Watergate fame, on page 49.

And so I?m saying I don?t think they had anything to do with the lead-up to it that was a matter of calculation. But after, in the aftermath of 9/11, there was a calculated effort to try to use it not only to attack Iraq, but to push an agenda that involves a retraction of our civil liberties. I believe that, and I think that this opportunity that we lost, I think that what I intend to do as the next President is to go back and create an opportunity for this country to heal itself over what happened. Because we really haven?t had that.

You know, I went to the site of the World Trade Center last year, on the anniversary of 9/11. It was on September 12, actually. Congress came together. I went to New York City shortly after 9/11 and saw the devastation, and so I came back [in 2002] and saw the site had been cleared. That very day, the headlines in the papers, I would go back and look at it, was instead of a deeper investigation of how 9/11 happened, the Administration used that occasion to once again assert aggression against Iraq.

You see, they made a connection ? now think about this. Why would they talk about Iraq on the anniversary of 9/11? Because they knew plenty by then that there was really no [Iraqi] nuclear capability, but they did it anyhow. So the answer to your question is that what I would do, recognizing that this country still needs to heal, still needs truth, still needs reconciliation, is to go back into it with ? not with judgment. We don?t need judgment, but with compassion for ourselves and our nation. And that would be part of how we reconnect that world which is ready to embrace America once again, if only we proceed into the world with open heart, and without aggression.

Questioner: Can you tell us your position on the Mideast situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis?

Kucinich: Yes. We lost an opportunity in the Middle East by this diversion and this perversion of our policy in going towards Iraq. We had time when we had serious conflicts, people were dying in the Palestinian territories and in Israel. This conflict exacerbated. We instead pushed violence against Iraq. We have to recognize that if the United States is pursuing violence anywhere in the world, and then somewhere else in the world is trying to promote peace, it?s antithetical.

If you want peace, you have to work for peace everywhere. You can?t work for violence in one place and peace in another. Because that only encourages violence all over. So here are the specifics of what I would do ? and for those of you, by the way, who are leaving because we?re out of time for questions, hopefully I?ll have some time to hang around outside and we can talk a little bit. Or you can go to kucinich.us. You can go there.

I would do this specifically. First of all, we have to recognize that the security of Israel, which I certainly support, depends upon the security, the autonomy, of the Palestinian authority and the [ultimate] formation of a Palestinian state. But let?s think about this a moment. So we have people here who are in favor of the creation of a Palestinian state.

Understand this: just creating a Palestinian state doesn?t really solve this matter, because those of us who have followed this carefully know that the territories have been devastated. Homes have been destroyed. Any hope for business has been destroyed. Schools have been destroyed. Infrastructure has been destroyed. There?s total devastation.

The United States can now foster an agreement by working and leading the way in the world community to help rebuild the Palestinian areas, so that the political claim for stability can be supported by an economic framework for stability. We know that political stability requires economic stability, so that?s the first thing that I would want to do.

The second thing: Israel and the new Palestinian state must share water rights. It could be a source of conflict in the future. There has to be agreement for water. And the third thing: there must be agreements for mutual security in providing regional security, so that each state recognizes a right and an obligation to defend the other.

Now, there are other issues at stake here. And these are issues which the United States cannot force. They are issues that deal with the right of return, issues that deal with the borders. These are issues that the parties have to get together and come up with their solutions, because we cannot impose them, I don?t believe.

So my dedication, as the next President, would be to work with the leaders of Israel and the leaders of the Palestinian people to come to a resolution, because this is important for the world. We understand that the Middle East is often a flashpoint for war everywhere. And because we understand the effect war anywhere has on peace everywhere, we know that we must focus on this, and we must do it in a way that provides for a structure of peace to be put in place that can last. I?m dedicated to that.

Before I sign off and go outside to greet you, I wanted to say how grateful I am that you are here tonight; that you?re what?s going to make my candidacy possible. That I?m willing to go across the country and take up this challenge, and provide the sharpest contrast that anyone will provide with this incumbent administration, I know in doing so we?ll give the people of this country a real choice.

We?ll give the people of this country an opportunity to have guaranteed, universal, single-payer health care. You know, we are a nation which has so many needs, and so this campaign, what you can do, how you get empowered, is to contact your friends and relatives, and whatever. You can use the Web, or your holiday greeting list, or your fraternities, sororities, your garden clubs, your church groups, whatever it is.

It?s the fabric of community reknitting itself that will be the basis for the restoration of our American community. I am confident, as I go across this country. Let me tell you: people see this as an opportunity. People see the chance to take America in a direction that will connect us with the deeper meaning of this country. So I?m just so grateful to have a chance to be with you this evening Let?s move together to reclaim our nation. Thank you very much.

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