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Friday, September 24, 2004

John Kerry and the trashing of our allies 

By TigerHawk at 9/24/2004 01:56:00 PM
As nearly as anybody can tell, the only difference between John Kerry's proposed Iraq policy and the Bush administration's actual Iraq policy is that John Kerry is claiming that he, unlike Bush, will be able to induce "our allies" to contribute soldiers or money -- it isn't quite clear -- to the security and reconstruction of Iraq. Since various of our allies, including particularly the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy and Japan have already done this, Kerry is really talking about France, Germany and Canada. Of course, France has said that under no likely circumstances will it send troops to Iraq, so that leaves Germany and Canada, both of which say they are committed to their capacity in Afghanistan. Other countries that might contribute soldiers, including Arab "allies," Russia, and Pakistan, are either undesireable for geopolitical reasons, unwelcome for their likely impact on Iraq's internal politics, or unavailable on account of their own domestic constraints.

This reality should be enough to discredit John Kerry's "plan" for Iraq. Fortunately for Bush supporters, though, the Kerry campaign is going the extra mile and working hard to alienate America's actual, as opposed to its erstwhile, allies. This is deeply offensive to the interests of the United States, would make it very difficult for a Kerry administration to deal credibly with any number of our allies, and is worse than any snarkiness from disgruntled Vietnam vets or sleazy conspiracy between Kerry's staff and CBS News. Cassandra is very, very angry, as well she should be (and she does not even mention Diana Kerry's hideous comments in Australia). Go soak in her rage.

UPDATE (4:40 pm EDT, Friday): Scrappleface weighs in:
Democrat presidential contender John Forbes Kerry today offered to give Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi a guided tour of Iraq to clear up misunderstandings that Mr. Allawi has about the situation in his own nation....

A spokesman for the Kerry-Edwards campaign said the tour will help Prime Minister Allawi to "see the ugly face of American foreign policy and petro-imperialism, and strip him of his misplaced optimism."

Heh.

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1 Comments:

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Fri Sep 24, 05:56:00 PM:

Nice analysis, Jack. That's exactly what I wanted to do today - go and look up what France, Germany, and Canada's current statements/commitments were, but I've been tied up with work all week and was up late last night getting my husband packed to leave the country.

I didn't mention Diana Kerry because that would truly have caused my head to explode :) The woman should just be taken out and shot without further unnecessary delay...

I actually started to go there early this morning before the Krauthammer paragraph, but erased it in a mad fit of rage. I think Scott Ott had the right idea - I should be able to laugh this stuff off, but somehow I just end up feeling vaguely ill.

- Cassandra  

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