Bush misled the congress into thinking that by its preapproval to go to war was to emphasize its unified will to be used as a symbolic threat that we would no longer tolerate Saddam’s defiance of sanctions and inspections. Bush, moreover, abused his soaring approval rating to instill fear of imminent danger from a tin-horn dictator who was severely weakened by the Gulf War, and yet rushed to war, defying world opinion.
Now that the war is here Kerry needs to impress on the voters that the current status in Iraq is a clear indication that the domino theory of democratizing the Muslim world will never materialize by our heavy hand, but only through a backdoor policy of the UN and major allies to rebuild Iraq and through active diplomatic relations in the rest of the Middle East to begin the development of modernity, together with firmly renouncing Israel’s blatant expansionism and Palestine’s horrific terrorism.
Kerry needs to address the false image of Bush as a strong leader by attacking his weakness in waging a war in a nation — more fearful of imperialism than Saddam — that would not understand preemptive liberation and force-fed democracy, threatening their Islamic beliefs. There is nothing more telling than “mission accomplished” as rude symbolism of Bush’s “miscalculation.” Further, not only has Bush failed in Iraq but has shown no interest in winning Afghanistan. As for the strong leadership on the war on terror, where is it? Iran’s incursions into Iraq is ignored, kidnaping goes unnoticed, the growing casualties of civilians and our troops are swept under the rug, little is done about nuclear material being under lock and key, and North Korea is a problem not on the agenda.
Kerry should be honest about why he voted against the $87 billion Iraqi appropriations: “Look, it was a toss-in protest vote against adding to the deficit because I knew my vote was not needed; had it been I certainly would never deny matériels for our troops. And my gaffe that ‘I actually voted for it before I voted against it’ was in connection to the proposal that it be paid for by rolling back the tax cuts of the affluent.” Also he should explain that he would probably favor the war without the threat of WMD because he really believed Saddam was a threat down the road, but that does not mean that he was in favor of Bush’s incompetent strategy to go it alone.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: September 9, 2004.