Progressive Rep Jim McDermott Interview

There's a post, a long one, over at Let's Try Democracy - Writings by David Swanson. It seems to be a true transcript of the interview with, you know, its a transcript of how people talk, the way they, its how they talk and it can be, its difficult to follow sometimes, but worth the effort.

Swanson. So if there is a plan now that leaves the US in control but brings something in the direction of a halfway step towards peace that starts to talk about negotiations and amnesty and so forth, is it possible to support that sort of plan while urging more, or do you have to . . . .

McDermott: I think all of us would support anything that looks like it might work. But I have to say I have serious reservations. I mean, I just talked to my friend again in Iraq, rather in Amman. And he sent me an email. There’s an article in the Seattle paper called, “It’s Tribal,” meaning it’s not, this was I think last Sunday, it’s not religious. It’s tribal. Well, I sent that to him and I said, “What do you think of this?” He said, “Well, you know, it’s not bad for a start. But,” he said, “this is way more complicated than the author really understands.” And he said that the fundamental thing is that as long as you are on my land this is not going to be resolved. And he said you can see that in Palestine and you can see it in Iraq.

Swanson: Yep.

McDermott: You are an occupier. And as long as you occupy my land, then I am going to fight. So as long as the United States - that’s why Jack Murtha’s, the best part of his plan is strategic redeployment. Let’s pull out to the periphery. Let’s get down into Kuwait. We can send our troops down to Kuwait. If there is something we want to go and do we can do it from there. Or maybe we can, maybe even the Kurds would allow us to have some troops up there. I mean, who knows. But if we don’t pull out, we will still be occupiers.