In three weeks I want to get back to the place where Kerry is not the focus but a nuisance'..
Agreed. Kerry is a menace right now, but once he's defeated (preferably in a landslide!) let's hope he can fade away to be a mere 'nuisance' -- and he can tell his pals in the liberal think tanks how he was just tooooo sophisticated for Americans who view terrorists as something worse than a "nuisance."
When the NY Times author says Kerry understood so much "before the rest of us" that has to be understood in the context of Kerry's public statements and writings in the 1990s: he views mainly the criminal aspects of terrorism, requiring international cooperation analogous to fighting drug lords and organized crime. But he STILL does not grasp how we have to be willing to END REGIMES forever that oppose us and side with the terrorists. That is the new deterrence that must be maximized in a post-9/11 world: every dictator in the world must know that the US government and military are prepared to end his regime and end his life if he sides with the terrorists. Braying about diplomacy and multi-lateralism is inadequate and unacceptable in a potential US President.