Which John Kerry Won The Debate?
By Brian Yates (10/14/04)
Undecided voters watched October 7th's presidential debate to see which candidate would win. I, however, watched to see which John Kerry would win. It might be the Kerry who voted for the Iraq war and declared Saddam Hussein a “grave threat.” Who, in 1998, told President Clinton that action was necessary to end “the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.” But it could also be the John Kerry who “voted for the war before he voted against it” and slammed America’s allies as the coalition of the “coerced and the bribed.”
Well no surprise, they both showed up. (Kerry debated himself and it came out a push.) The man who sat on the Senate Intelligence committee, reviewed the same intelligence that President Bush himself was seeing, and came to the same conclusion to send our military to war in Iraq now calls the war “the wrong war at the wrong time.”
Kerry opened by claiming he would be stronger and more resolute in the war on terror: “I have a better plan to fight the war on terror by strengthening our military, strengthening our intelligence.” Say what? During the 1990’s, the senator thrice tried to cut $7.5 billion out of the defense budget. In 1997, he asked, “Now that the [Cold War] struggle is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow?”
The senator running for president on charges that George W. Bush misled the American people engaged in a few mistruths of his own. He declared that Bush failed to build a “true alliance” and that “we pushed our allies aside.” Kerry also cited the first Gulf War as the way a war should be fought. (A hilariously ironic flop here…Kerry voted against what he now calls a good war and voted for the war he now calls “wrong.”)
Well what of the allies? During the first Gulf War which Kerry has finally – after a dozen years – decided he likes, we had 34 allies. For the second Gulf War, we have…30 allies. Are we really missing the French that much over there?
Kerry however, has a plan to engage in a great global hug. “I have a plan to have a summit with all of the allies.” May I ask here; who else is he going to find to contribute? France? Nope. Foreign Minister Michel Barnier declared that France had no plans to send any troops “either now or later.” Germany? Not according to Defense Minister Peter Struck, who said “No German soldier shall enter Iraq.” And an article in London’s Financial Times stated definitively that “French and German government officials say they will not significantly increase military assistance in Iraq even if John Kerry…is elected.” They ain’t coming, Senator.
Our “arrogant” foreign policy wasn’t the only subject. The cost of the war was also cause for complaint: “Today, we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the cost: $200 billion - $200 billion that could have been used for health care, for schools, for construction, for prescription drugs…” Okay Senator! We get the idea.
First to casualties. The United States has suffered, including non-combat deaths, 1,053 killed. Number 1,000 is no more or less important than number one. They’re all important and they’re all tragic. And none of them deserve to have your campaign – or anyone else’s – holding events to mark the thousandth death. Turning the death of an American soldier into a campaign rally for your side to win an election is possibly the pettiest and most shameful demonstration I’ve seen in politics.
Saying that we have suffered 90 percent of the casualties; however, ignores the contribution of the Iraqis. The newly trained Iraqi military and police forces have suffered at least 750 combat deaths. This puts the U.S. closer to 58 percent of casualties. For the record, in the first Gulf War - which Kerry now likes - the U.S. took about 80% of overall casualties.
As for the $200 billion, only $120 billion is marked for Iraq. The remaining $80 billion is for Afghanistan which, according to Kerry, is the true center of the war on terror.
And to bring our allies back into the discussion; they’ve pledged around $13 billion, as well as promising to forgive more than $80 billion of Iraqi debt. Even France will write off 50 percent of its Iraq debt.
What did the American people learn from the debate last night? We learned that John Kerry has a plan. (But not what it is.) We learned that Kerry will strengthen the military but cut the spending on the war. We learned that he will build a broad coalition…even though a coalition of 30 nations has already been built. We learned that the Democratic nominee doesn’t count the Iraqi losses among casualties in the war. In short, we learned that we didn’t learn anything about the John Kerry plan for Iraq.
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