Debate Thoughts III

The Bush team is in full attack and spin mode post G-Dub’s abysmal showing last week. The crux of the messaging, that Kerry is soft on terror because he sees the need for international support, isn’t new, but it’s definitely become the central anti-Kerry theme. Dare I say that it’s replaced “mixed message” and “flip-flopper”?

I just don’t get the reasoning behind this attack. But if the Bush administration has shown us anything in the past four years, it’s that nearly any message can be communicated and accepted by the general public if that message is repeated enough times. The “liberal” media was and continues to be a primary driver in the Bush communication machine, having been primarily responsible for the labeling of Kerry as a flip-flopper, when in reality Bush has been just as guilty, if not moreso, of changing course on a number of topics.

Anyhow, back to the point, can someone explain to ED why it’s a negative that Kerry believes the international community should be used as a litmus test? Afghanistan is a perfect example. The administration asked for and presented compelling evidence that suggested Afghanistan was harboring terrorists. By convincing and working through the international community, all parties were happy and the interim results were exceedingly successful, at least until we lost focus.

Bush is presenting this view of the world as being completely anti-American and adversarial, which just isn’t the case (or at least it wasn’t until he took the helm). The fact is that other Westernized countries are facing the same terrorist fears as the United States and have just as much to lose by not supporting American policy as ourselves. The point is that the countries that didn’t support an invasion of Iraq are our allies (so much so in fact that he’s now on a first name basis with his friend Vladimir in Russia – one of the funnier moments of the debate) and were clearly very under-whelmed by the arguments we made to invade. A global litmus test would’ve prevented what will soon be $200 billion in spending, a tarnished international reputation and most importantly the lives of more than 1,000 American soldiers.

ED personally found Kerry’s comments on a global litmus test one of the better moments of the debate. Here’s specifically what he said in the debate:

“No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you've got to do in a way that passes the test—that passes the global test—where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing, and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

Here we have our own secretary of state who's had to apologize to the world for the presentation he made to the United Nations. I mean, we can remember when President Kennedy, in the Cuban missile crisis, sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with [French President Charles] de Gaulle, and in the middle of the discussion to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, [the secretary of state] said, "Here, let me show you the photos." And de Gaulle waved them off, and said, "No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me." How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we've done, in that way?”

Contact El Duderino at jaipf@hotmail.com.