Kucinich hopes to redefine national security starting in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS - Drawing on earlier visits to Iowa, Dennis Kucinich believes it's the ideal place to begin a national conversation about redefining national security.

'I know Iowa is the place where there is a receptivity to new ideas about where American can or should go,” Kucinich said.

The former Ohio congressman and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008 will bring his vision for peace and prosperity to Iowa City Sunday and Cedar Rapids Monday.

Kucinich, who once called on Congress to create a Department of Peace, wants to redefine national security in terms other than war and militarization.

'If national security only means war, we're looking at a country that is increasingly in deeper and deeper trouble,” Kucinich said. It should be defined 'in terms of how can we be secure as individuals, as families and a nation, and meet the needs of the country without being embroiled in these wars constantly.”

Sunday, he will speak at 2 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library, 123 S. Linn St. His presentation will be sponsored by the Palestinian Human Rights Action Network.

At 7 p.m. Monday, Veterans for Peace will sponsor Kucinich at Veterans Memorial Building, 50 2nd Avenue Bridge, Cedar Rapids

Both events are free and open to the public.

Tuesday, he and his wife, Elizabeth, will participate in Occupy the World Food Prize, speaking at First Unitarian Church, 1800 Bell Ave., Des Moines, as part of their effort to redefine agricultural security by looking at 'fundamental principles about agriculture, about sustainability, about soil, about water, that have to do with protecting our ability as an agricultural state and country and our relationship to the world.”

'That's why I'm starting in Iowa,” he said, because it is the 'place to start a new conversation nationally because of its pre-eminence in the political process.”

However, he's not coming as a candidate, Kucinich said about the potential for another presidential bid. 'I've had all the attention that a candidacy provides.”

'My ambitions are for the people, not an office,” Kucinich said in a phone interview from the U.S. Capitol where he was looking at a bust of Iowa native Henry Wallace, who served President Franklin Roosevelt's vice president and secretary of commerce and agriculture. 'I'm coming to Iowa to advance ideas that are critical to get into the debate. Otherwise it's the same old same old and nothing moves forward and America doesn't move forward.”