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George Soros is continuing his national tour to talk about the war in
Iraq and why President Bush is "endangering
our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values,"
with recent stops in Harrisburg, Tampa, Sarasota, Miami, Fort
Lauderdale, and Des Moines.
You might be interested in this exchange following his talk at the
Breakfast Lyceum in Harrisburg, PA on October 19. You can read the full
transcript of the Q & A exchange on our Web site.
Q: What are some of the things that
President Kerry
should do in Iraq that President Bush has not done?
A: We have to find an orderly and honorable exit from
Iraq because Iraq is now facing civil war. We have very cleverly set
the date for elections there in January, which is after our election.
So, hell is about to break loose, but it will be after the elections.
Probably the elections [in Iraq] cannot be held under those kinds of
circumstances because the Sunnis, for one, will not participate.
However, we have to make clear that we are not there to stay, that we
are ready to hand over power to a legitimate Iraqi government. What the
Constitution of Iraq should be ought to be established in an
international conference where the neighbors are also represented, as
well as the major groups in the country. The problem is you've got
three major groups and you've got oil, and they will all want to
control the oil, and they will be fighting each other for that control.
So you have the makings of this civil war. There has to be an
arrangement for the distribution of the oil revenues among the major
groups, a large confederate or federal structure established and
introduced, Iraqi troops trained, and some international guarantee of
these arrangements - preferably with non-American troops, because our
troops are now an invitation for attack. That is the way to go, and I
think Kerry has a chance - a better chance - of doing this than Bush,
who has said he would do everything the way he is doing it now. So he
has no credibility. We are the enemy, the occupying power.
Q: Mr. Soros, what would you say to a moderate
Republican businessman who, even though he may be sympathetic to your
argument about Iraq, is still troubled by other elements in Kerry's
respective policies related to court appointees, tax policies,
regulatory environment, things like that. How would you persuade such a
moderate Republican in the totality of the election?
A: I have talked to many moderate Republicans who are
very disturbed about the budget deficit. It is really contrary to the
principles that the Republican Party used to stand for. There is a
latent rebellion about that because it feels quite good while you're
spending the money, but then there is how to pay. And we've gone from
the largest surplus to the largest deficit in a very short period of
time. And we have cut taxes at a time of war - that has never been done
before. The tax cuts, of course, benefit people like me. But if you
take a little longer view, it's extremely harmful. And I had an IT
venture capitalist call me up and say that he wants to contribute to
America Coming Together the amount of money he saved on the latest tax
cut, which was three million dollars. So that is, I think, a very
important argument. I don't think that it is in the spirit of the
Republican Party to run a budget deficit out of control.
You can read more of Soros' answers to questions on his weblog,
which is updated daily. In response to a comment from one reader, in a recent
entry Soros issued a challenge to readers to contribute to a list
of Bush's flip-flops by sending him an
e-mail. You can check back for an updated list soon, or take a look
at new press clips in the What
People Are Saying section of the site.
Thank you for your continued interest in George Soros' message about
our country and the importance of defeating President Bush on Nov. 2.
Best,
GeorgeSoros.com
P. S. Please forward this message to your friends, family,
and colleagues.
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