> The grid of international political views is, at least, a two by two
> grid,
> and any time someone simplifies it into simple "interventionist
> imperialism" versus anti-imperialism is just missing the complex of
> values
> motivating voters.
Probably it's a much more multi-dimensional grid. That's why we need leaders who will really lead and enlighten the public, which Kerry is not. Do you agree?
I think Bob Dreyfuss' blog on Tom Paine <http://www.tompaine.com/archives/the_dreyfuss_report.php> pretty much says it all. (I'm sorry he decided not to vote for Kerry, though -- perhaps he lives in a "safe state.")
*********start Dreyfuss quote********
Kerry The Hawk
August 02, 2004
Chances are, Iraq is going to blow up in John Kerry’s face between now and November. By all accounts, it’s already blowing up. Because I spent last week writing about the 9/11 Commission, I didn’t say anything about the Kerryfest in Boston. Now, I’m usually disappointed with the Democrats, but last week’s militarized convention might as well have been held on a fleet of Kerry’s Vietnam fast boats, or on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. The liberal left watched it all with grins frozen on their faces, telling themselves that it was all just election strategy—that Kerry was pandering to the center-right to get elected, that it was a brilliant tactic, that Kerry is really a dove. But I don’t think so. I think Kerry is an outright hawk in hawk’s clothing, albeit a multilateral one, and it’s hard to see what Kerry would do differently than Bush. If that’s the case, what’s the argument for voting for Kerry? That he will appoint liberal Supreme Court justices? (He’s already calling for tax cuts.) The issue in 2004 is Iraq, and on that issue Kerry has lost my vote.
I’d hoped that the elimination of the sock-stuffing hawk Sandy Berger from the campaign might have allowed more dovish advisers to speak up, but no.
Robert Fisk, the brilliant reporter forThe Independent, is clearly at the end of his tether, chronicling the lies from Baghdad and getting exasperated:
Watching any Western television station in Baghdad these days is like tuning in to Planet Mars. Doesn’t Blair realize that Iraq is about to implode? Doesn’t Bush realize this? The American-appointed ‘government’ controls only parts of Baghdad—and even there its ministers and civil servants are car-bombed and assassinated. Baquba, Samara, Kut, Mahmoudiya, Hilla, Fallujah, Ramadi, all are outside government authority. Iyad Allawi, the ‘prime minister,’ is little more than mayor of Baghdad. ‘Some journalists,’ Blair announces, ‘almost want there to be a disaster in Iraq.’ He doesn’t get it. The disaster exists now.
The American press has basically stopped covering Iraq. The utter collapse of the 1,000-person national convention, so secretive that its attendees, date and location couldn’t be mentioned, is now postponed indefinitely—a major, headline-style event that managed to get only passing coverage in the United States. Iraq is adrift. U.S. forces are helplessly pounding Fallujah, killing scores and accomplishing zero. The resistance, from secular nationalists to wild-eyed Islamic fanatics, is stronger than ever. The hooded fanatics and Islamic suicide bombers are kidnapping people, blowing up police stations and Christian churches at will. The secular militants and Baathists are continuing to kill U.S. soldiers and Marines at a steady pace.
"I know what we have to do in Iraq,” Kerry lied to the DNC. He doesn’t have a clue. What he thinks he knows is how to kowtow to the so-called undecideds and swing voters and convince them that he has a plan. But he doesn’t, and I don’t think these confused, lost voters are going to buy it either. Kerry’s refusal to attack Bush over the war in Iraq is an unconscionable, unforgivable blunder.
******end Dreyfuss quote*******
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A gentleman haranguing on the perfection of our law, and that it was equally open to the poor and the rich, was answered by another, 'So is the London Tavern.' -- "Tom Paine's Jests..." (1794); also attr. to John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) by Hazlitt