Kucinich Makes It Official

Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has made it official; here's the story from The Washington Post:

Citing dissatisfaction with his party's strategy on Iraq, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) announced yesterday that he would run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

(snip)

"Democrats were swept into power on November 7 because of widespread voter discontent with the war in Iraq," Kucinich said. "Instead of heeding those concerns and responding with a strong and immediate change in policies and direction, the Democratic congressional leadership seems inclined to continue funding the perpetuation of the war."

Kucinich has a perspective that should be heard whether people agree with him or not; Washington media types have been far more wrong in the last six years than they have been right and the same can be said of many members of both parties. We should all wish Dennis Kucinich luck in making a viewpoint known that is shared by millions of Americans.

I listened to part of Kucinich's hearing yesterday on the Lancet Report that said Bush's war in Iraq has led to 655,000 excess deaths in the battle-torn country. I thought the most eloquent speaker was Middle East expert Juan Cole of Informed Comment; he pointed out that he reads specific Arabic-language reports on deaths in Iraq that are never reported in English papers. Dr. Cole suspects the numbers are accurate. If so, our intervention in Iraq has been a strange way to bring democracy to a faraway land.