BERKELEY -A noontime visit by Dennis Kucinich, U.S. congressman and anti-war presidential candidate, pumped a sympathetic UC Berkeley audience full of hope Tuesday in the midst of what many said were dark and depressing times.

Kicking off an afternoon-long "teach-in" about the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kucinich, D-Ohio, staked out his ground as the clear standard bearer for the left in the crowded field of Democratic candidates.

The 56-year-old former mayor of Cleveland strongly condemned the U.S. attack on Iraq and advocated for popular progressive issues such as universal health care and renewable energy development.

"If you view America in a world where it is at war with the forces of evil, that inevitably leads to war," Kucinich said. "But the advancing tide in this world is not toward war. The advancing tide is toward peace and human unity.

"Do we buy into war? Do we accept it as an expression of our national purpose?"

Such talk appealed to UC Berkeley German professor Daniel Wilson, who said he has witnessed growing suspicion and distrust of U.S. motives around the world.

"(Kucinich) is probably the only candidate who would offer any alternative to the Bush administration's unilateralism to foreign affairs," Wilson said. "I think his approach to foreign policy would give America a chance to regain the respect of the world."

Wilson attended Kucinich's speech with nearly 300 other students, faculty and members of the public who were clearly opposed to the U.S.-led invasion and disappointed with current Republican and Democratic leadership.

Topics at the afternoon's teach-in included "Manufacturing belief to support the war: the media role," "The Bush doctrine, what now, where next and why?" and "America and empire."

Republican lawmakers have attacked Kucinich for criticizing the Bush drive to war while troops were engaged in combat. Polls show Kucinich near the bottom of the evolving pack of Democratic presidential candidates, but the congressman said Tuesday he believed his liberal political platform would distinguish him.

Kucinich said that if elected president, he would advocate for U.S. withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, shift the nation's health care to the public sector, institute a Department of Peace to find nonviolent solutions to conflict, and support an autonomous Palestinian state.

He painted his candidacy as a campaign to "reclaim our country."

"It's time to reclaim the position of our country in the world as a light and not as a threatening flame," Kucinich said. "We are on the path toward becoming the Sparta of the 21st century, armed to the teeth and without the capacity to care for our own people. This is the moment to speak up for human unity."

Copyright 2003 The Contra Costa Times

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