I read the article as well. Kerry actually let it be known how he will “fight” the war – excuse me, the police problem, without all the “I will kill the terrorists” rhetoric that his handlers insist on. He thereby exposes the fact that he exists, not in reality as we know it, but in a Potemkin village.
He yearns to “get back to where we were,” when terrorism is just a nuisance, like prostitution and illegal gambling. As a former law enforcment official, a prosecutor, he knows that we will never rid ourselves of the criminal. We must treat it the way we treat the mafia – make sure it isn’t on the rise. (And they call Bush a pragmatist!) “This isn’t the Sands of Iwo Jima,” he avers, from which I infer that he’s had enough of all this John Wayne-rah-rah American-playing at war BS.
Kerry views the entire war as illegitimate. He means it when he talks about diplomacy being the answer to the problem. His fantasy coalition consists of the various Arab countries and old Europe. His thinking is that we must find out what the Arabs want and compromise (cough “appease”). He thinks that we must once again sit down with the Dear Leader for bilateral talks. The countries which will be affected first, Japan, South Korea, and China, don’t need to be involved. They aren’t involved because they have nothing to bribe the Dear Leader with (China is nominally on North Korea’s side. That Bush got them to pressure the Dear Leader in the first place was a diplomatic coup.) The fact that this policy is what put us in peril in the first place seems not to play a part in his fairy tale world of diplomacy.
He thinks that we ought to talk the Iranians into buying nuclear material from us so that we can monitor its use. He has even offered to give it to them if they will acceed to this stipulation. This is obviously based on the idea that Iran is merely seeking nuclear material for the peaceful use of nuclear power and not its stated intentin to have a “Muslim bomb.” So far the Iranians have laughed at this proposal. If they persist, Mr. Kerry has stated that he will go to the UN and ask for sanctions. The Iranians are biting their nails as we speak.
In both these cases, Kerry advocates this course of action based on the premise that America has no legitimate right to ask any other country – regardless of that country’s stated intent, or whether it is even sane – to give up their right to have the same weapons we do. Every country is equal in the eyes of Kerry. If we don’t have these weapons, it will no longer be legitamate for these countries to have them either. Since we all know that legitimacy is the paramount value sought by every country, they will no longer have any need to seek a nuclear capability. It’s all so clear!
Kerry will withdraw (surrender) from Iraq as quickly as possible. It will not matter to him what happens to the country after we’re gone. It does not matter that we will be handing the enemy a victory he could not hope to attain otherwise. For an example of this particular “plan,” you need look no further than Viet Nam. There is a difference this time, however. The Vietnamese had no ambition to conquer this country, the Islamist does. Do not kid yourself on this point: Islam preaches patience of a sort that is generational. What is one lifetime when the goal is the spread of The Religion of Peace. It is Allah’s world and it is their duty to die getting it for him.
I won’t go into the horrors of Kyoto or socialized medicine. It was hard enough reading this inbred, nuanced clap-trap the first time.
Elizabeth:
Trying to understand Islam is like attempting to understand the history of Christianity in one lesson. Islam, like every mystical belief system, has a myriad of sects, most of which hate each other. The history and the pathology are complex, as is the savage atavism of its consequent societies.
One thing is certain: You will learn virtually nothing from the American mainstream media. Try some of the better blogs: Little Green Footballs regularly prints articles from Arab newpapers. Read some of the Iraqi blogs. MEMRI translates articles from Arab sources. There are English edition Arab newpapers and magazines. Also check out the Asian newspapers. Yahoo has links to several good English edition media from Asia. Read carefully though. I’ve learned to glean as much from what isn’t said, or how something is said, as from anything I accept as true.
That ought to be enough to get you started. 