Democratic Presidential contender John Kerry appeared to take the latter position last week, when he declared that "the goal here . . . is a stable Iraq, not whether or not that's a full democracy. I can't tell you what it's going to be, but a stable Iraq. And that stability can take several different forms." ... In historic terms, this is a remarkable reversal. Once upon a time Democrats were the great promoters of morality and idealism in foreign policy. During the Cold War, those Democrats included Harry Truman and John Kennedy, the latter most famously in the aspirations of his inauguration speech to "pay any price" and "bear any burden" in the cause of liberty. It's both insightful and ironic that Dems, in the spirit that there is nothing a Republican administration can do that deserves credit, now criticize Bush for nation-building when clearly in the nation's self-interest as in Iraq (as distinguished from Clinton's use of the military for social-assistance programs), and for calling for the advance of Freedom and Democracy in this unsafe world. Thus Bush's initiatives relegate the Dems, desperate for survival, to take wholly untenable positions that are directly contrary to those of Wilson, FDR and JFK, while proceeding to the electoral polls in a hand basket.
Kerry gets a new speechwriter every four or five days.
"the goal here . . . is a stable Iraq, not whether or not that's a full democracy. I can't tell you what it's going to be, but a stable Iraq.Kerry doesn't know what the outcome will be, but George Bush knows for a fact as he is making it happen.
We need leaders not fools running the show.