John Kerry Unleashed

John Kerry, who still views himself a presidential timbre, was recently in Washington state to raise money for Maria Cantwell's failing reelection bid. As you'd expect, Kerry made some inflammatory comments while there.
Over breakfast here on Wednesday morning, the Massachusetts senator was not about to turn the other cheek. "We are cutting and running from the truth," Kerry said. "We are cutting and running from diplomacy. We are cutting and running from providing our troops with the arms and materiel they need." After being hit by charges two years ago that he was wishy-washy on the war, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee seems rekindled in the sense of outrage that once brought him to prominence with Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
If anyone's "cutting and running from the truth", it's liberals. Does any Democrat not named Lieberman think that John Murtha was telling the truth when he said that "American troops are living hand to mouth"? Or when he said that troop morale was low?

We know Murtha was taking a truth vacation on troop morale because Kevin Seavey told him off about that at a town hall meeting:
"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt. Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you [...] (applause).

"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.
Which side is playing tricks with the truth, Sen. Kerry? It damn sure isn't Republicans. And all the faux indignation in the world won't spin that fact. I'm sure that the bluster sounded forceful but it's still bluster.
"I'll tell you what I think: It's quite personal," Kerry said. "A bunch of people who never served in the military or Vietnam, and drew the wrong lessons from the war, brought with them an ideological bent on the world's problems."
This coming from a pacifist who thinks that war is always to be avoided at all costs. This coming from the man who said that Reagan's deployment of Pershing missiles in Europe would spark the next expansion of the Cold War. (You remember that cold war, don't you? It's the one that collapsed 7 years later.) And we're supposed to pay attention to his sermonizing on war? I think not.
What would Kerry do? He would apply a variation of an old axiom: There's nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus the mind. He would set a May 15 date to begin a U.S. withdrawal, and then convene all of Iraq's players, as well as Middle East governments, in one place and put them under intense pressure.

The model would be the Dayton Accords, the peace agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina worked out in 1995 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Participants in and enablers of Yugoslavia's civil war were isolated and made to deal. The accord ended 3 1/2 years of war in Bosnia.
What an idiotic proposal. It's breathtakingly stupid. Kerry's telling them "Get this done ASAP or we're leaving" is fraught with perils, not the least of which is his cavalier attitude about Iraq becoming a Pro-American democracy planted in the heart fo the Middle East. The guy doesn't get it. AT ALL. I don't like there not being a government formed yet but I'm perfectly willing to give it more time because the outcome is so important.

In Kerry's tiny mind, this is just another issue to demagogue. He deserves to be ridiculed for getting yet another foreign policy matter badly wrong.

By the way, the Dayton Accords failed miserably. Here's how Tony Hyland wrote about it:
"As we take stock of where we are, we see what we lack for a truly durable peace, a functioning sovereign state that unites all peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina; an economy free from political influence and corruption that can provide jobs and stability; and the ability for all refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes."  (From a statement by the United Nations Mission in Bosnia, the Office of the High Representative, the Mission of the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe [OSCE], and NATO)

This joint statement by the international agencies presently responsible for Bosnia-Herzegovina amounts to an admission of failure on key aspects of the Dayton Peace Accords, signed in November 1995. In an attempt to salvage some credibility for the UN intervention, the agencies point to the absence of war four years on. But this offers small comfort, as a future resumption of armed conflict cannot be ruled out.

The term 'peace' is an ill-fitting appellation for a situation in which ultra-nationalists continue to dominate political life, refugees are unable to return home and corruption is endemic throughout the power structures of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
And yet, Jean Francois Kerry wants us to pattern this worthless summit after Dayton. Will he never learn?

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Posted Friday, April 14, 2006 10:20 AM

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