SwiftVets.com

[SBD]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.thomas22sep22,0,2427400.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

Aiding the enemy, again
By Cal Thomas

September 22, 2004

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has achieved something that may be unique in the history of our country. He has managed to oppose two wars while they are being fought, undermine the objective of the nation and give aid and comfort to those who are killing American soldiers and kidnapping American civilians.
In a speech at New York University on Monday, Mr. Kerry questioned President Bush's judgment in ordering American troops to topple Saddam Hussein, saying the president had exchanged a brutal dictator for "chaos."

While acknowledging "there has been some progress, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our soldiers and civilians in Iraq, [and] schools, shops and hospitals have been opened, [and] in parts of Iraq, normalcy actually prevails," Mr. Kerry claimed that "most Iraqis have lost faith in our ability to deliver meaningful improvements to their lives. So they're sitting on the fence ... instead of siding with us against the insurgents."

Mr. Kerry is an expert at fence-sitting, having sat on one most of his life. He has taken both sides in the war and tried even in this speech to distinguish between granting President Bush authority to wage war and reserving his right to micromanage the war Mr. Bush wages if it doesn't immediately produce victory.

It wasn't long after Mr. Kerry returned from Vietnam that he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He slandered his fellow soldiers, calling them indiscriminate killers and comparing them to Genghis Khan.

Returning prisoners of war said their North Vietnamese captors played excerpts from Mr. Kerry's congressional testimony in an attempt to break their morale and convince the POWs that their country had abandoned them. Sound bites from Mr. Kerry's NYU speech could be played in certain mosques to convince the insurgents and other Muslim extremists that all they have to do is step up the killing between now and the U.S. election and victory for them is assured. They have seen America cut and run before. Mr. Kerry's address may again provide aid and comfort to America's latest enemy.

Mr. Kerry claimed President Bush has offered "23 different rationales for this war." Even if that were true, he is still far behind the number of flip-flops committed by Mr. Kerry on the war and a long list of other issues.

Mr. Kerry once again returned to his pledge to seek help in Iraq and against terrorism (as if the two can be separated) from America's "allies," despite statements from many European leaders indicating that they will not become involved in Iraq no matter who wins the November election.

Mr. Kerry criticized the president for "colossal failures of judgment -- and judgment is what we look for in a president." So is decisiveness, and Mr. Kerry fails on both counts. There is nothing in his Senate record, in his pronouncements during this campaign, or in much of his life story that gives voters confidence that this is a man with strong principles whose judgment and vision can be trusted.

Instead, Mr. Kerry's life has been one of self-promotion and self-indulgence. As with the Vietnam War, he doesn't talk about victory, or America's unique place in the world to which free people, and those yearning for freedom, can look.

Terrorism didn't begin on Sept. 11, 2001. It started earlier than the Beirut barracks attacks in 1983. It began in the hearts of evil men who preached about an angry god intent on wiping out his enemies through violent acts. That disease spread, and whether it found a host in Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, the virus exploded into a worldwide plague.

Mr. Kerry's remarks were not about finding a cure for the plague but about surrendering to it, or taking diplomatic placebos hoping the disease will go away.

It won't go away, even if America withdraws from Iraq tomorrow. Had we not gone there in the first place, terrorism would still be around.

The objective should be victory. It was a word absent from Mr. Kerry's speech, because it is a concept foreign to a man who has demonstrated his preference -- first with Vietnam and now with Iraq -- to help America's enemies in times of crisis far more than helping his own country.


Cal Thomas' syndicated column appears Wednesdays in The Sun.


Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun

SBD

[army72]

This should be required reading in schools.

[diane in IL]

I love Cal Thomas. What a brilliant mind... and such a way with words. Kind of a "refined" Limbaugh.

Thanks for sharing this link. I sent it to a few "fence sitters".

diane in IL

[neverforget]

But he will say:

"It's all in the name of saving lives."

I despise holier-than-thou moralizing of anti-war people. As if the rest of us are pro-war.
_________________
US Army Security Agency
1965-1971

[julsmith]

That's why peace through responsible military strength makes sense.
After WWII, the US could've made an empire out of the spoils of war, but what did we do? We took over 10 years to get other war-torn countries back on their feet by both military and financial aid. We did exactly that. We don't want to rule the world, regardless of what Europe might think, but we WILL and MUST look out for the underdogs of this world.

Kerry needs to let the real leaders of the free world lead, and get out of the way, and FAST.

[rb325th]

Had kerry been President this would still be in discussion in the Security Counsil. Saddam Hussein would still be in Powers. Saddam would have won the game he was playing with the U.N., he would have restarted his idle WMD Programs, intensified his Missle Programs, AQ would have a greater friend in the Mid-East.
Lybia would still have the WMD they voluntarily cofessed to having and gave up to the U.S. and Britain.
Etc...
_________________
U.S. Army 1983-1995, 11C1P/11H2P NBTDT

[wvobiwan]

[army72]

Kerry is wrong on so many fronts, he has to take the other view just to even things out. From his point of view it's hard to pin him down if he takes every stand possible on every issue.

FWIW- Saddam even tried to make the Gulf War a holy war by launching scuds at Israel and calling all of Islam to untie against the coalition try to push him from another Muslim country. Any question about where he would put his support? He also was paying the families of terrorists who blew themselves up to kill others. He tried to kill a president. Any questions about his connections to terrorist groups or his willingness to fund or arm them?

I would much rather have our guys over there drawing those nutcases out to fight in a Middle East country than I would having them here. At least over there our guys can shoot back. I hope our guys don't have their hands tied though. We have lost over a thousand guys, not because of the tactics that those sickos hiding behind Islam are using but because we don't play everything is a target like our opponents. Our guys risk all to avoid civilian casualties. They could declare martial law. (maybe not a bad idea)

[larrygj]

Just think how different this election year would have been if the Dems had nominated somebody (say, Gephart) who supports the war in Iraq and against terror, who on foreign policy might have been bipartisan and focused his entire campaign instead on domestic issues where Bush is vulnerable. The Dems could have had a good shot at winning. But Traitor John is a disgrace, who in his craven ambition unnecessarily opened old wounds and is creating new ones. He encourages the enemy in Iraq and is directly responsible for the additional dead and wounded attributable to his self-serving, irresponsible behavior. I can just see him, opening the newspaper on the veranda with Teraaayza every morning, hoping and praying for more bad news out of Iraq which his allies in the blathergated media will play up for all it's worth.

We have found a sleazy lizard worse than Michael Moore, and his name is John Kerry.

Hopefully there will be enough Democrats who consider themselves patriotic Americans first who will join Republicans and independents to assign Kerry to the dustbin of history, where he so deservedly belongs.

[Rdtf]

Go Baltimore Sun!

[Rdtf]

I just have to add this: This article by Cal Thomas is one of the best I've read. He really sums up everything I have been feeling about Kerry perfectly, in one article. Email it to your pals.