"President Kerry" And The War

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“President Kerry” And The War
by Brian W. Peterson, Contributor

October 21, 2004

Columnist Brian W. Peterson When considering Sen. John Kerry’s inability to properly grasp the single most important issue facing our nation, we must envision what a Kerry presidency would look like.

In hindsight, Washington politicians are nearly unanimous that they agreed with fighting the war in Afghanistan. But the reality is, the CIA and the State Department advised the president not to launch the war.

President Bush evaluated the advice but rejected the conclusions, opting to consider the long-term interests of protecting America against terrorists and those who harbor them. In light of such advice, it was a demonstration of courage by the president to destroy the Taliban.

How would have a President Kerry responded to such advice? We can only theorize, based upon votes he cast in the Senate over the years.

But more important, if Kerry is elected, what will become of the war against terrorism? One could make a credible argument that the war will cease to exist as we know it. Kerry’s passion for diplomacy at all costs, his opposition to the concept of preemption, and his desire for approval from “the world” will remake the war. Interestingly, many of the pro-Kerry talking heads on television and radio claim otherwise, giving tacit support to the president’s leadership.

President Kerry will effectively end the war against terrorism as we know it. More accurately, the war will continue, but how America fights back will drastically change.

This analysis has nothing to do with Kerry’s pronouncements such as “wrong war, wrong place, wrong time.” It has everything to do with Kerry’s philosophies about the projection of American might. Whether one examines the words of War Hero Kerry in 1971, Senator Kerry voting to cut the Intelligence budget after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, or many of Candidate Kerry’s statements since his run for the presidency began, the pattern is easy to spot: John Kerry is uncomfortable with American military power.

Despite Kerry’s flip-flops on some of the issues which confront America, his moral equivalency approach to the American military has remained consistent. Whether it is the Viet Cong, the Soviets, or Islamic radicals, Kerry believes that our enemies can be reasoned with and cajoled into civilized and rational existences, and that we are equally as wrong and right as they are. Perhaps an argument can be made that the communists could have been reasoned with to a certain degree, but to believe that we can sit down and negotiate with these radical, murderous terrorists is insane.

Kerry supporters can find recent remarks uttered by their candidate which would support a future President Kerry standing tall against terrorists. But Kerry, who was completely wrong about how to approach the Soviets and wrong about the Gulf War, has a record of votes and statements which suggests otherwise.

Sen. Kerry continues to describe the war in law enforcement terms. He has no idea of the gravity of the imprisonment of Saddam Hussein, and recently admitted that Hussein might still be in power if he had his way. Despite declaring the importance of American sovereignty, he still insists that we must recruit an alliance before defending American interests.

Under President Kerry, not only will the allies whom he is so fond of belittling resent him, but those on whom he counts for support will remain aloof. Current alliances will unravel and satisfactory new alliances will not materialize.

Kerry also fails to understand that certain nations- particularly France, China and Russia- want American influence to diminish. If America has to be hurt in war to achieve that end, so be it.

“President John Kerry” will be disastrous for the war against terrorism. Our enemies, allies and semi-allies around the world know this to be true. If Kerry is elected, the American people will figure it out only when it is too late. ***

Photo of Brian W. Peterson courtesy of the author