[Shermy]

I agree - important article. Lots sound like a fellow traveller - eg the strawman of American "militarism" torn down by his other suppositions.

Was Daddy Kerry a comrade? He certainly sounds like he wants to be European.

And interesting Kerry so little talks about dad.

"...although his book does read like a contemporary brief against neoconservatism..."

Yawn. It's a "contemproary brief" of its time, against the policies of specifically democrats like Kennedy and Johnson - who were not anti-Americans or uncomfortable with America. They were "neo-conservatives" - though not in the cryptic religious sense.

When Kerry mouths off Bush should cite Kennedy.

[marron]

What I hear is intellectual arrogance. He's too smart to believe in America, and whatever we do, he is too smart to fall for it.

There is plenty of that going around, by the way.

If we work with existing governments, we are trafficking with dictators. If we lean on them to mitigate their abuses, we are too haughty. If we promote democracy and rule of law we are too stupid to recognize the cultural differences among men. We should have intervened to resolve Haiti's misery. Our rescue of Aristide was an overthrow that should be investigated.

What drives men like this is not a basic belief in any particular philosophical values but rather a wounded sense that the world has not properly appreciated them. Whatever is done, they would have done it better.

[okie01]

"It's a "contemproary brief" of its time, against the policies of specifically democrats like Kennedy and Johnson - who were not anti-Americans or uncomfortable with America."

Add Harry Truman to the list. In Daddy Kerry's mind, Truman was not only strategically misguided in "starting" the Cold War, he was also a vulgar commoner. A failed haberdasher, no less.

Daddy Kerry must have really had it in for Kennedy, though. Not only was JFK I pro-American, he betrayed his class by not buying into what the intellectual elite was thinking at the time.

If John Effin' Kerry is capable of having "core beliefs", we now know they definitely include: a.) America is always wrong, b.) the Europeans are always right and c.) international organizations should be running the world.