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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula Posted July 10, 2006  Updated July 26, 2006** Text and photo © 2006 Michele Anderson.

U. S. Sen. Carl Levin addresses local Democrats

By Michele Anderson

HANCOCK -- United States Senator Carl Levin (D-Detroit) spoke of his views on Iraq and the policies of the Bush administration and fielded questions from Houghton County Democrats during their July 2, 2006, dinner at the Ramada Inn in Hancock. 

Levin began by saying he "had a hunch the Supreme Court was going to rule as it did" on the issue of federal courts' jurisdiction in Guantanamo cases, noting that he himself was involved in writing the law which the Court said allowed it to proceed. 

"It's a major decision in terms of trying to rein in this president, who thinks he's all powerful, basically. He can not only execute the laws, but he can write the laws, and he does it all the time," Levin said. "I think the President really has overextended executive power ... He has no check and balance in the Congress because it is a Republican rubber stamp (for) the executive branch."

Noting that Americans hear the words "checks and balances" from the time they are in civics class in school, Levin said the Supreme Court performs that function of a check on executive power when Congress is not doing it.

Cassie Van Dam, 12, a Houghton Middle School student, asks U.S. Senator Carl Levin for his autograph during Sen. Levin's visit with local Democrats in Hancock on July 2, 2006, at the Ramada Inn. Cassie also asked Levin a question about former President George Bush and his son, President George W. Bush, concerning the decision to go into Iraq. Also pictured are Cassie's grandmother Carol Kurtz of Calumet and George Love of Houghton. (Photo © 2006 Michele Anderson)

Levin said he had been spending the past two weeks on Iraq issues and spoke extensively about the recent Levin-Reed amendment, which was intended to urge President Bush to tell the Iraqis we are going to begin our redeployment out of Iraq this year.*

"We don't want to do it precipitously," Levin explained. "We want to force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own lives and their own country .... The Iraqis believe that we're a security blanket, that we're just going to stay here as long as they want us to with as many troops as they want us to have."

Although the amendment failed, Levin said he believed both the American public and the American military agree on ending the open-ended commitment we have in Iraq, especially since General George Casey, commander of U.S. and Coalition forces in Iraq, just a few hours after the amendment lost, said he thought he could make substantial U.S. troop reductions in Iraq this year.

"The Iraqi army will be fully trained by the end of this year," Levin stated.

He noted he had talked to many people, and he believes the American public wants to change course in Iraq, which has cost more than 2,500 American lives, 17,000 wounded and a bill of $6 billion a month.

Levin said he had talked to President Bush personally, telling him that beginning this redeployment  is the only way we're going to force Iraqis to take over responsibility.

Levin added this is the only chance the Iraqis have to avoid an all-out civil war -- by working out political differences; finding a way to bring the Sunnis in to share power and resources; and having a solid army and police force subject to a national authority, not clerics.

"One mistake we made right at the beginning was saying we're going to fund Iraq's reconstruction," Levin noted. "They ought to be committing their own resources (Iraq has got the second-largest reserve of oil in the world) to their own reconstruction."

Carol Kurtz of Calumet asked Levin about the building of "permanent" bases and infrastructure in Iraq.

Levin replied, "I'm a strong critic of the President, to put it gently, but I don't think he has in mind 'permanent' bases in Iraq."

He added these bases could be for training the Iraqi army or for security forces to protect Americans in Iraq.

"I can't believe he's so out of touch that he's building permanent bases for American combat forces," Levin said.

Iraq and Viet Nam

A (drafted) Viet Nam veteran, Phil Faucher of Tapiola, compared the experience of American troops in Iraq to his own experiences in Viet Nam in the 1960s and the problems of soldiers being confronted by civilians with weapons.

"We shouldn't have been there (in Viet Nam) in the first place," Faucher said.

"I agree with you," Levin answered. "I voted against it."

As for Iraq, Levin added, "This should not be a partisan issue. This is life and death. This is war."

Janet Metsa, Houghton County Democratic Party chair, said, "This wasn't supposed to be a war in the first place. We weren't supposed to be in a situation where you couldn't distinguish the enemy from the civilians. All of the civilians were supposed to be for us."

Faucher added, "I hate to see young people go through what a lot of us vets have gone through ... adjusting, trying to understand what the world's about."

Levin replied that he had recently spoken at the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, D.C. He noted we're not making the same mistake we made in Viet Nam -- we're not taking it out on the troops.

"Our debates are among people who make policy -- about policy," Levin said. "They're not about whether or not that young man or woman who's there deserves our support. Everybody's in support of these (professional) troops."

Levin then noted the War in Iraq is different from Viet Nam because of the way we became involved in Iraq after 9-11, when the President of the United States, and maybe the Vice-President, got 60 percent of the American people to believe that the people who attacked us on 9-11 were supported by Saddam Hussein.

Levin added he knew that was false, though "we all thought there were weapons of  mass destruction."

Referring to several countries that do have weapons of mass destruction that could lead to constant war (India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, the United States and Russia), Levin said, "You don't attack a country because they've got weapons of mass destruction even if they do have weapons of mass destruction."

The presence of weapons of mass destruction is not a reason to attack a country unless there is an immanent threat or unless they are allied with somebody who attacks you, Levin said.

Another difference from Viet Nam, he noted, is the religious complexity that exists in Iraq. Levin said members of the Arab community in Detroit have told him that the U.S. is creating greater divisions between Sunnis and Shiites than existed before we went into Iraq.

The Bush administration

Complexity, in fact, is something President George W. Bush doesn't want to hear, Levin said, when asked his opinion of the President.

"Number one he's not dumb," Levin said. "He's perfectly capable of making thoughtful, intelligent decisions, but he's intellectually lazy....He doesn't want to deal with complexity. ... He doesn't like nuances; he doesn't like pros and cons....He likes simplicity -- simple answers -- black and white."

An example, Levin noted, was Bush's use of the word "crusade."

"That's where his (intellectual) laziness," Levin added, "becomes very, very dangerous for all of us."

Levin contrasted Bush and former President Bill Clinton, who, he said, "loved to consider pros and cons" and would spend hours examining what the consequences of a decision might be.

Replying to a question on what he thought of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Levin said he disagreed with him vehemently.

"If I thought that the President's policies would change by getting rid of Rumsfeld, I'd be all for it," Levin said.

Levin added he didn't like the way the Defense Department had a separate channel of intelligence that they ran before the war.

Levin commented on a note that Rumsfeld wrote within hours of 9-11, which said, "'Can we involve Iraq in our response?'" 

Although the CIA did not believe there was a link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, Rumsfeld's group influenced the decision to go into Iraq, Levin explained.

Mike Lahti, local Democratic candidate for state representative to replace term-ended Rich Brown, asked Levin if he knew the reason the Bush administration wanted to go into Iraq. Levin admitted that, while oil might be one factor, he really didn't know for sure all the reasons.

To questions on Iran and North Korea, Levin commented, "In both places I think we should stick with our Allies."

He pointed out the importance of history (e.g., Iran remembers we installed the Shah and we were with Saddam against them in the past.)

"We're not great historians in the U.S.," Levin noted. "We shouldn't act as if history is irrelevant because it's irrelevant to us. That's not the way the rest of the world thinks."

Voting questions

John Griffith, candidate for Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners, brought up the subject of free, fair, verifiable elections with national standards for voting machines and paper ballot trails.

"I'd love to have national standards; we're not going to get them," Levin replied. "We do, however, have national funding for states now that will come up with technologies which are better, faster, more secure; but I don't think we're going to get a uniform technology. I'm very nervous not having a paper trail."

Levin said he believed the real place where elections are distorted is in strong Democratic areas that lack adequate voting machinery.

"I've seen it in Michigan (as well as Ohio)," he said. "I know where the long lines are. I see it where I live. I see it in my precinct (in Detroit)."

Levin said it worries him that people in high Democratic areas who work all day and have to face a long line at 8 p.m. may decide not to vote.

"It worries me because if you lose a couple votes per precinct," Levin noted, "you lose an election."

To Griffith's question on the mid-term elections, Levin said he believed if the elections were held now the Democrats would pick up one of the two houses of Congress.

"Four to six Senate seats would switch if the election were tomorrow," he said. "The House is probably even more likely to switch."

That statement received extended applause from the audience of Democrats.

Levin expressed his strong support for Democratic colleagues in Michigan -- Governor Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow and U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak -- all running for re-election this fall.

"We've got a Democratic governor who I believe has been a courageous governor against the odds -- a big deficit inherited (from former Michigan governor Engler), two Republican Houses that are not cooperative with her," Levin said.

He noted Granholm's opponent has unlimited funds with a T.V. ad that's on "all the time." Levin noted it interferes when he's home on week-ends, trying to watch the Detroit Tigers play. 

Visitor Joanne (Gregorich) Kyle, originally of Painesdale and now of Denver, Colo., attended Levin's presentation along with her sister, Janet Gregorich, former Houghton County treasurer.

"He hasn't changed," Kyle said of Sen. Levin. "He's one of us. He's down-to-earth, comfortable with constituents and they with him."

Levin has held the office of U.S. Senator from Michigan since 1979 and is Michigan's longest-serving Senator.

Janet Metsa, Houghton County Democratic Party chair, said Barb Turoc Mills did most of the arrangements for the dinner, at the request of Sen. Levin's office.

"He likes to visit the Democrats when he is in town for official business and can fit it in his schedule," Metsa said.

* Editor's Note: Visit U.S. Senator Carl Levin's Web site for his full statement regarding U.S. involvement in Iraq. Sen. Levin has also been a member of the Armed Services Committee throughout his career and chaired the committee from June 2001 to January 2003. He is also co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force.

** Visit Senator Levin's new Web site at www.CarlLevin.com. (The links to Sen. Levin's Senate Web site above are still active.)