Mark Steyn: Kerry won't scare any of the big beasts

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 02/10/04 | Mark Steyn

[Travis McGee]

The only relevant lesson from Vietnam is this: then, as now, it was not possible for the enemy to achieve military victory over the US; their only hope was that America would, in effect, defeat itself. And few men can claim as large a role in the loss of national will that led to that defeat as John Kerry. A brave man in Vietnam, he returned home to appear before Congress and not merely denounce the war but damn his "band of brothers" as a gang of rapists, torturers and murderers led by officers happy to license them to commit war crimes with impunity. He spent the Seventies playing Jane Fonda and he now wants to run as John Wayne.

[lainde]

That's a good point. Who was in his crew? Where are they now? Are they in that "band of brothers" he's ramming down our throats. Anyone there from when he ran after that wounded Vietnamese soldier? Enquiring minds want to know...

[jokar]

What day and time is he on Hugh's show ?

[xp38]

Wednesdays 4:00 pm Pacific Time according to this webpage http://www.hughhewitt.com/pages/guests.htm

[Stultis]

Actually one could argue the the Vietnam War was lost almost as soon as a Democrat became POTUS. According to Kissinger's memoirs, and his more recent book on Vietnam, Ike strongly expressed to Kennedy during the transition that the defense of Laos was strategically vital if Indochina was to be defended from the communists. Once the North Vietnamese were ensconced in Laos and Cambodia they could insert troops or supply insurgents from nearly anywhere along the entire western border of S. Vietnam.

A war that could have been won by a few tens of thousands of American troops became one that required hundreds of thousands (which Kennedy was then not willing to commit).

[JohnHuang2]

Thanks for the ping :-)

[JohnHuang2]

Mark Steyn MEGA PING!!

[GeronL]

bump

[MEG33]

Applause on your new tagline!I love Mark Steyn's writing.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

***Presidential candidate John Kerry, the Default Democrat***

(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

[Brian Allen]

<< The ... Kerry decade ... in the Cold War [Put] the eventual result ... in doubt. The Communists seized real estate all over the globe ... because they [Correctly] calculated that ... Kerrified America would never respond.

In the final indignity, when the proto-Islamist regime in Teheran seized the embassy hostages, they too shrewdly understood how thoroughly Kerrified America was. >>

When actually confronted by United States of America's President and Armed Forces Commander-In-Chief, George Walker Bush, the default "DemocRAT" may be counted on to raise his anus and open his jacket, if he has one on.

Iin the unlikely event, that is, that his anus is not already open.

[FreedomPoster]

Ping. This is a marvelous piece by Steyn, more than worth a look. One of his best, and he rarely pens a bad one. Best summation of Kerry vs. Bush around.

[Brian Allen]

<< There should be a prize for anyone who posts a Mark Steyn article. >>

For anyone but quidnunc, that is!

That person doesn't know how to post a whole one.

[MEG33]

Steyn

[MEG33]

FYI..for enjoyment

[Redcoat LI]

Agreed.
I know there are sources we have to excerpt,but everything else should be fully posted.

[cateizgr8]

Good article. Thanks for the ping :)

[MeekOneGOP]

Classic Steyn ! Thanks for posting.

The terrorists, given a choice between Hanoi John and George W. Bush, would pick Kerry !

Vietnam was a "war of choice". But, once you chose to go in, there was no choice but to win. America's failure of will had terrible consequences. The Seventies - the Kerry decade - was the only point in the Cold War in which the eventual result seemed in doubt. The Communists seized real estate all over the globe, in part because they calculated that the post-Vietnam, Kerrified America would never respond. In the final indignity, when the proto-Islamist regime in Teheran seized the embassy hostages, they too shrewdly understood how thoroughly Kerrified America was. It took Mrs Thatcher's Falklands war and Reagan's liberation of Grenada to reverse the demoralisation of the West that Kerry did so much to advance.

Senator Kerry has done a good job of enlarging himself but the reality is simple: George W Bush's America has won two swift wars and overthrown two enemy regimes; John Kerry was heroic in a war that America lost and whose loss he celebrated. Since then he's been a model lack-of-conviction politician. The question for anyone who thinks Kerry has "credibility" on national security is a simple one: who do you think Iran, North Korea, Syria, al-Qa'eda's Saudi paymasters and the rogue elements in Pakistan's ISI would prefer to see elected this November?

Those guys are the real dangerous beasts and you can bet that, unlike Democratic primary voters, they don't think Kerry looms so large, with his endless deference to the UN and the French, and his view that the war on terror should be more a matter of "law enforcement" - subpoenas, the Hague, plea bargains. That's as profound a mis-understanding as the fellow on page 70 of my book, raising his butt to the mountain lion. And that's not a position most Americans will want to take.

[The Wizard]

and those images of Kerry in the 70's need to be played and re played

[Happy2BMe]

"The Seventies - the Kerry decade - was the only point in the Cold War in which the eventual result seemed in doubt. The Communists seized real estate all over the globe, in part because they calculated that the post-Vietnam, Kerrified America would never respond. In the final indignity, when the proto-Islamist regime in Teheran seized the embassy hostages, they too shrewdly understood how thoroughly Kerrified America was."

What does it look like to have been

Kerry-fied?