Who leads Team America?

Who leads Team America?

Don't say, "The Captain!"! A captain leads field players.

We're not looking for "Captain America"!

Think again.

The Coach.

The Coach directs field players. The Coach directs the captain. The Coach leads the team.

Compared to the Coach, a captain is someone who may -- one day -- have enough experience to lead the team. The Coach has both the brains and brawn to lead: s/he is thinker and doer. A captain executes tactics: the Coach outlines the strategy.

When George W. Bush jetted onto USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, to stand before a banner declaring "Mission Accomplished" and to announce "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," he let Americans know who was boss -- only we don't have political "bosses" in America (except the occasional glitch, like Tammany Hall). George W. Bush is no flyboy -- he cannot properly demonstrate that he even fufilled reserve duty as such. No doubt, George W. Bush wants to be a captain. He's been acting like a captain. Problem is, the president is not a captain: the president is a coach.

It gets worse. When George W. Bush announced "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," he could not have been more wrong.

And it gets still worse, because Georget W. Bush is not leader enough to admit that he was wrong. Americans started to know early on -- papers were being published publicly by US military experts (see August 15, 2003, paper "The Sunni Insurgency in Iraq" by Dr. Ahmed S. Hashim of the US Naval War College) -- that the Iraq War was bogging down into a Viet Nam. But to this date, George W. Bush cannot admit he was wrong. He would rather "stay the course" -- even if that course is a one-way road to hell -- a one-way road to hell for America, not for him, because he will not lose his millions, he will not be judged for his actions before a court of law, and he will not lose sons or daughters, nephews or nieces in this destructive, unfruitful war.

John Kerry has already been a captain, in time of war. After completing his education at one of our country's finest universities, Yale, John Kerry enlisted and served 1966-1969 in the US Navy, serving two tours of duty in Viet Nam and reaching the rank of lieutenant. (Personal naval records are available here online, in PDF format.)

For his service in the Viet Nam War, John Kerry was awarded three Purple Hearts. The Purple Heart was created by General George Washington for "outstanding valor and merit" and revived in 1932 for combat soldiers "wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy."

After Viet Nam, John Kerry served his country again, this time in government. From 1984 to the present, he has been a US senator from the state of Massachusetts. He is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's Sub-Commitee on Oceans, Fisheries, and the Environment, and ranking member on the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations' Sub-Committee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs -- among others. Sound complicated already? Thank God, John Kerry was a serious Yale student!

Between combat and government service, John Kerry performed the least thanked and most courageous civic duty of all: he publicly dissented. Dissent was once a great American tradition, made most famous in pre-Revolutionary War times by Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense (click here to read the third edition). In the process, he joined (VVAW) and later co-founded Vietnam Veterans of America.

John Kerry has accumulated enough experience to have the wisdom to change course:
- He came back from Viet Nam opposed to the war; over time, he decided to improve matters not by opposition but by changing from within: is that a flip-flop, Mr. Bush (Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rove)?
- As more factual information about Iraq came to light, he changed his outlook and strategy for Iraq: is that a flip-flop, Mr. Bush (Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rove)?

John Kerry is a doer and thinker. He is a man with experience and wisdom. With your minimal support -- with your vote -- you can empower a courageous American to further serve his country. John Kerry has the presence of mind and experience in action to know when it's time to push on ahead, when it's time to regroup, and when, if it becomes necessary, it's time to call it quits and move on elsewhere. These are presidential qualities. George Washington had them. Thomas Jefferson had them. Abraham Lincoln had them. Woodrow Wilson had them -- and pulled US troops out of Mexico. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had them -- and pulled US forces out of Haiti. Richard Nixon had them -- and pulled US troops out of Viet Nam (and later resigned as president in the face of his own personal defeat). Ronald Reagan had them -- and pulled US forces out of Lebanon. Bill Clinton had them -- and pulled US forces out of Somalia. With your support, John Kerry will make great decisions -- and help make this country loved as well as respected around the world once again. America can once again become a "good neighbor" to all.

Now, how do we get there by November 2 -- and January 23?

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Read more about:
- Why do we need Team America?
- What is Team America?
- Who Leads Team America?
- Action Plan up to January 23, 2005

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