Kucinich 6-14-03
Taft High School Woodland Hills CA
Congressman Kucinich spoke to a lively group of several hundred. The event was sponsored by Valley Democrats United.


Below are excerpts from the speech and Q and A session.

“Any government that would lead a nation into war under false pretenses is not a legitimate government…”

“Let’s remember what we were told, we were told that there was immanent threat and our country had to move quickly to meet it…”

“Maybe the immanent threat that this administration forced the congress to address in October of 2002; Could it be that the real immanent threat was the possibility that November of 2002 a democratic congress was going to be elected…”

“Did they want to come to California to talk about Enron… did they want to explain the corruption of the regulatory process that Enron represented. Did they want to explain the corruption of Wall Street that occurred and Enron was emblematic of? Did they want to have to explain the millions of American that are out work because of their failed economic policies? Did they want to have to explain the fact that so many people in this country don’t have any health insurance… Did they want to try to explain why the American economy was sputtering? No! They didn’t want to explain any of it, so what did they do, they drove us into an unnecessary war in order to change the subject so the American people would for a moment forget about the rest of it!”…

“In this case 400 billion dollars has been authorized for the Pentagon in this new budget and with the treasure of the nation and sacrifice education and health care and all the other pressing needs. You cannot do that unless there is a supreme national emergency, but this Administration took advantage of the concerns of America. This Administration drummed up and propelled the fears of America. This administration capitalized on those fears. This Administration drove us to war. This Administration caused us to spend countless million of dollars on a war we did not have to fight at the cost of many lives, innocent lives and the men and women who serve this country and this ADMINISTRATION MUST BE CALLED FOR A ACCOUNTING…”

“We had the heart of the world open to the United States After 911. They’re was great sympathy for Americans the loss of live great tragedy … the nations of the world were ready to cooperate with America. We squandered the support of the world community. As president of the United States, I intend to lead us back to cooperation… ”

“Fulfill The Promise of The Non-Proliferation Treaty…”
“Work with the community of nations for total nuclear disarmament.”


“This Country Can Set a Powerful Role for Setting the Terms For Trade…”

“Let me tell you that right now the United States has lost hundreds of thousand of manufacturing jobs because we had basically given up our authority for world trade. We had basically when we signed the North American Free Trade Agreement have let corporations create circumstances in this country… That have driven down wages, that have driven down benefits, that have knocked out unions, that have made impossible for people to organize, that have caused jobs to move out of this country… To where workers are sometimes less able to defend their interests… When I see that NAFTA has contributed to the destruction of our vital social fabric of this country, I pledge this my friends that my first act in office will be to cancel NAFTA.”