Eric Margolis says U.S. prez is an arrogant, wrong-headed fool in the mould of doomed soldier
By ERIC MARGOLIS
What to make of presidential candidate John Kerry? Is he really an indecisive serial political flip-flopper and national security lightweight, as Republicans charge?
George W. Bush takes pride in being strong and decisive, comparing himself to FDR and Reagan. Republicans keep trumpeting the president is bold and resolute.
Bush has been decisive alright -- decisively wrong. The American leader he most closely resembles is Col. George Armstrong Custer, an arrogant, opinionated, headstrong fool who spurned all warnings, boldly and resolutely leading his command to disaster on the Little Big Horn.
Kerry, like anyone who served 20 years in the Senate, is a flip-flopper. Legislators are hounded by powerful special interest groups whom they must accommodate to keep political donations flowing. This dependency, and heavily amended bills often contradicting their initial intent, produce contradictory votes.
Soft on defence
As for national security, one's stomach churns hearing President Bush, VP Dick Cheney, and neocon sofa samurais, many of whom dodged active military service during the Vietnam War, shamelessly accusing Kerry, who won three Purple Hearts in combat, of being soft on defence.
Bush and Cheney presided over the two worst intelligence fiascos in modern U.S. history: 9/11 and Iraq; plus the most expensive, stalemated wars since Vietnam. Iraq and Afghanistan are costing $6.5 billion US monthly with over 912 American and some 20,000 Iraqis killed.
Then there's the Abu Ghraib prison horrors.
Speaking of national security competence, the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld troika either blundered the U.S. into a mistaken war based on grotesquely unreliable "intelligence" -- a farce worthy of The Three Stooges -- or lied the U.S. into war, purposely deceiving Congress and the public.
If so, such malfeasance would demand impeachment.
Half of all U.S. ground forces are stuck in Mesopotamia while National Guardsmen, who should be fighting fires and floods at home, are press-ganged to Iraq.
The Bush-Cheney "crusade" against so-called terrorism enraged the Muslim world and is incubating ever more violent anti-American groups. Administration bungling allowed Osama bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora. Now, 20,000 U.S. troops are tied down in Afghanistan hunting him.
Bush & co. have ruined America's good name around the globe. George W. Bush has become, quite possibly, the world's most detested political leader.
Only the brain dead could call this grand failure a successful national security policy. It's very hard to imagine Kerry doing worse than Bush.
But will he do better? So far, hyper-cautious Kerry failed to call for a pullout from Iraq, as did courageous Gov. Howard Dean.
Kerry waffled over Iraq, fearing opposition to the war would expose him to charges of being unpatriotic. His proposed solutions to Iraq sound unrealistic.
Kerry has mouthed the same empty platitudes as Bush about fighting terrorism, instead of telling Americans the truth: They face a growing insurgency in the parts of the Muslim world the U.S. rules.
He was dismayingly quick to signal support for Israel's hard-line government, disappointing those hoping for a more balanced Mideast policy. Palestine's agony is a primary cause of surging anti-U.S. passions in the Muslim world.
The media's destruction of outspoken Gov. Dean was not lost on Kerry.
His carefully crafted blandness is designed to avoid controversy and appeal to the centre, attracting undecided voters and wobbly Republicans increasingly disillusioned by Bush.
Tour de force
Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention was a masterful political tour de force, covering almost every issue in the election. The senator came across well and established himself with the public as a credible presidential candidate.
Still, while being reassuring, Kerry failed to emotionally connect with voters, to electrify them. He needed fire to go with the brains.
His unisex convention speech could have been delivered by either a Republican or Democrat. Two failed wars and a runaway deficit is no time for pussyfooting.
Kerry should follow the example of his intelligent, feisty wife, Teresa, who seems to have bigger cojones than her husband. She brings the sophistication, worldliness, and street smarts so lacking in the insular, even xenophobic, Bush administration.
The wild card in this race is bin Laden. Bush wins if U.S. forces can capture Osama before November.
Otherwise, George Armstrong Custer Bush and Decaffeinated John Kerry appear to be in a dead heat.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2004/08/01/pf-565043.html