So, for Kerry this means that not only does he have to have a plan to get out of Iraq immediately, but he also has to dismantle the entire Bush War on Terror and creat a new policy framework to deal with terrorism. The current policy and its system is not a fixable system and not a fixable policy.
It is fundamentally flawed (besides being completely beyond any legal civilian, military or international review mechanism) and will therefore only generate massive abuses (crimes) at every level from meaningless conflicts, slaughters, and human rights abuses, to massive contractor frauds and scams.
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Yes, this is exactly right.
This is the thing progressives (or anyone paying real attention) must demand of Kerry if he replaces Bush -- the complete dismantling of the 'War on Terror' apparatus which is built upon the cosmically insane notion the United States can prevent the possibility of a tactic -- terrorism -- being used against it through some eternally applied combination of aggressive actions.
Kerry's first job should be deconstruction -- this is what Zizek, in a somewhat different context, was driving at in his essay, "The Iraq War, Where Is The True Danger?" If we accept the premise of total war for total defense the Bush admin has sold time and again, then it won't matter if Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz et. al. stay in place or not because the new norms they've created will outlast them.
Isn't this what made Augustus important in Roman history, this creation and soldifying of previously unacceptable norms? Augustus, if memory serves, made real the fears of the Senators who assasinated Caesar, he created the very tyranny -- gave it flesh and bones -- they thought they were intercepting.
Kerry's relatively liberal voting record, 60's era anti-war protest arrest and general un-Bushness will mean very little if he takes no steps to undo the real damage done.
Has anyone read or heard anything from Mr. Kerry about tackling this?
.d.