Question 3 in the next round of the 9 for 9 Project is as follows:

 

The U.S. presidential election debates between Bush and Kerry are forthcoming. You have been chosen to compose three questions for one of the debates, what are those three questions?

 

My first question is for Governor Bush: Governor, perhaps the most important single sentence ever written in the history of this nation was the very second one, crafted as you know by Thomas Jefferson:

We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

At the time that sentence was written, and for many decades thereafter, it was interpreted as not including many categories of human beings, such as women, slaves, and even white men without property. The history of this nation since 1776 can very easily be characterized as an ongoing confrontation with the possibilities figured in Jefferson’s language, as each new generation comes to understand precisely what is implied by those unequivocal words all men are created equal. Looking back at history, at those who sought to preserve slavery, to prevent women from voting or participating in the workplace, and those who attempted to bolster racial segregation, whether through the courts or through violence, it is also evident that those who would constrain the possibilities implied in the Declaration of Independence not only lose in the long run but also shame the very ideals of this nation. Sir, why have you offered support for an amendment that would cast bigotry into the U.S. Constitution by restricting the rights of gay and lesbian Americans to be treated as equals under the laws with regards to marriage?

 

My second question is for Senator Kerry: Sir, you voted to support the use of force for the invasion of Iraq at a time when many Democrats were extremely skeptical of what we now know to have been fraudulent claims regarding the possession of weapons of mass destruction, compounded in part by equally fraudulent claims concerning the relationship between the Hussein regime, terrible dictatorship though it may have been, and Al Qaeda. Subsequently, you have been critical of the ways in which the current regime has used the very same blank check that you and your colleagues in the Senate gave them. Can you explain why you were taken in by such patently bogus claims in the first place & what you would do as president to ensure that future administrations cannot rush the nation into unilateral wars of choice?

 

My third question is for both Governor Bush & Senator Kerry & concerns some of the root causes of terror: Gentlemen, of the world’s 6 billion people, more than 1.2 billion currently live on less than $1 per day, 60 percent of them in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These parts of the world have also seen a rise both in the number of failed states & in the export of the problems of failed states, one of which happens to be terror. To date, neither the United Nations nor the United States nor any other body has come up with anything like a program to address the problems of failed states. What would such a program look like, who would run it, what kind of power would it have, legally, economically, politically & militarily, & what role, if any, would the United States play in ensuring its success?