I'm going to be off for a day or two, so let me make a couple of quick observations about where President Bush and Sen. John Kerry stand on Iraq before tomorrow night's "debate." (See Note below)
Kerry rightly accuses Bush of living in a "fantasyland" about what's happening in Iraq and why. This war may not yet be lost, but it's certainly headed down the chute, while Bush talks about freedom being "on the march."
Kerry, however, has his own fantasies, the least likely of which is that our major European allies are going to help us out of our self-made mess by putting significant numbers of their troops in the line of fire in Iraq. As I've said before, this isn't going to happen no matter who is president. Any chance to "internationalize" this war, and it may never have been great to begin with, is irretrievably lost. Period. We just need to make sure we try harder next time, something Kerry, unlike Bush, is at least willing to attempt.
It's all right, I suppose, for Kerry to promise to try to extract troop commitments for Iraq from Germany and France. It's certainly no more misleading than Bush's hype about our "coalition," which apart from Britain amounts to token commitments from a) smaller countries that can't afford more or b) major allies with significant armed forces (e.g. Japan and South Korea) that either can't or won't make major contributions. But let's hope Kerry doesn't really believe the chances of success with Paris and Berlin are high.
As evidence, consider this instructive piece by John Vinocur in the International Herald Tribune (link via Belgravia Dispatch):
… last week, just after Kerry's major speech on the war in which he insisted that the United States "must make Iraq the world's responsibility" and that others "should share the burden," [German Chancellor Gerhard] Schröder's sense of courtesy collided with reality and he drove a spike into the notion. He told reporters, "We won't send any German soldiers to Iraq, and that's where it's going to remain."
So, no Germans. Even if he wanted to cooperate, which is far from certain, Schröder has promised his countrymen that no troops will be sent and he has elections coming up in two years.
Similar considerations also work for France. It would take exceptional sophistry for President Jacques Chirac to explain putting French lives on the line in Iraq. Besides, sidling up to any American president would not appear to have much appeal to Chirac at a time when Le Figaro says he's busy promoting himself as successor to Nehru and Nasser in leading the "nonaligned world."
Well, sophistry is right up there with wines and cheeses on the list of things the French do best, but no assistance from Chirac is in the cards either.
Kerry has struggled to differentiate himself from Bush on Iraq, and while it's an effort that he must succeed at if he expects to win Nov. 2 he's not likely to find many voters who actually believe he'd be successful at internationalizing the war.
On the other hand, the Bush-Cheney campaign continues to deliberately mislead the nation about Iraq at every turn. Nowhere is this more blatant than in their distortions of Kerry's position on Iraq, which has been pretty consistent since the beginning.
Today's example of Bush's disregard for context and truth is detailed at the independent campaign-claim debunking site, FactCheck.org. (See Note 2 below)
Kerry has never wavered from his support for giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq, nor has he changed his position that he, as President, would not have gone to war without greater international support. But a Bush ad released Sept. 27 takes many of Kerry's words out of context to make him appear to be alternately praising the war and condemning
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This ad is the most egregious example so far in the 2004 campaign of using edited quotes in a way that changes their meaning and misleads voters.
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… aside from the $87 billion matter [a vote on which Kerry did switch his position], this Bush ad is a textbook example of how to mislead voters through selective editing.
The full text of the ad and the full text of what Kerry actually said are here.
Finally, old-line conservative (and former splinter presidential candiate) Pat Buchanan has an interesting piece at the Libertarian site Antiwar.com, in which he reminds us that "history is not on Kerry's side. In wartime America, the peace candidate and the dovish party always lose."
Now, the Republicans are moving ruthlessly to play the ace of trumps in American politics, the patriot card, against Kerry.
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The New York Times may wail about "an un-American way to campaign," but Bush and Cheney are fighting for their political lives and places in history. Do not expect this pair to go gentle into that good night.
So, America is going to find out what the candidate they call "the Frenchman" is made of. And, frankly, we should, before we go to the polls. Stop the whining. Let's get it on.
Note: Rather than a debate, this will be a highly scripted joint appearance by two men delivering talking points on the same stage. The post-debate spin likely will be more important than what either of them says. But, please, pay attention to what they say.
Note 2: FactCheck.org is an independent site funded by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and should be on the favorites list of anyone following this year's campaigns. It debunks inaccurate ads and other utterances from both camps and their camp followers and describes its mission this way:
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
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The APPC accepts NO funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by an endowment from the Annenberg Foundation.
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