We have recently seen how Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass) and his supporters are willing to inflate Osama bin Laden’s importance in order to embarrass the President. Kerry used the occasion of OBL’s first video message in nearly three years as prima facie evidence of Bush’s utter lack of success in dealing with our enemies. For their part, Bush and other senior administration officials said soon after 9/11 – and repeatedly since -- that the mission is not about one man and success will not be measured with his fate alone.
Nonetheless, Kerry apparently wishes to denigrate all that has been accomplished so far – the break-up of the largest terror base in the world and removal of two brutal regimes that abetted worldwide terrorism. We are to understand that all of this pales in comparison to a mass-murderer’s pitiful attempt to influence our election.
OBL is thus being tacitly granted victor status -- he who vowed to push the West out of the Middle East in order to establish a Caliphate – when in fact the opposite has been achieved by his actions. If America’s security is top priority as Kerry asserts, he would have joined those of us who argue that the bearded gun-toting Holy Man is a failure who should be marginalized rather than elevating his status to that of a terrorist folk hero who has defeated the Great Satan merely by successfully hiding in a cave.
We have also seen how a story of an unaccounted for Iraqi weapons cache – that represents one percent of the total estimated materiel present in April 2003 – has been trumpeted as proof positive that Bush [and by association, the United States military] have failed both the Iraqi and American people. No allowance was given for the considerable doubt that exists for these weapons’ existence, where they came from, how they got there, when and under what circumstances were they removed.
Further, no credit is given for the thousands of schools opened, power/water plants built, thousands of metric tons of food, medicine and building materials shipped in, etc. etc. No recognition is offered for the hundreds of mass-graves that will no longer be filled by innocent Iraqi men, women and children. No acknowledgement is granted for the abrupt halt to bounties paid to suicide bombers’ families abroad and terrorists harbored within.
Not one positive accomplishment can be acknowledged on behalf of America’s security if Kerry is to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW come this January.
But it goes further. Kerry is raising no objection to those who are prepared to throw the coming election into turmoil on his behalf. Thousands of lawyers are being deployed to litigate if the ‘correct’ results are not attained at the ballot box. As of this writing, nine electoral lawsuits have been filed in Florida alone -- all by Democrats. Jesse Jackson has vowed to agitate his support base to protest and also litigate if a close election brings George W. Bush back to the White House.
Thus, Kerry’s party is willing and able to have the next election once again decided in the courtroom [and possibly the streets] -- rather than the voting booth -- if that is what it takes.
We who have studied political science were taught that an essential component of a functioning democracy is that the electorate trusts that their voice is heard at the ballot box. If an election is close, objectively defined pre-existing mechanisms to establish the results must be seen as trustworthy. Those in the losing party must have confidence that they can remain loyal and non-violent while their faction is out of power. This is more important than a 100 percent fair election, which is impossible in any case.
Kerry and his minions are willing to sacrifice all of this and more in order to win. We thus have someone who will exaggerate our enemies’ success -- and in the process magnify our own failure in dealing with them. We also have someone who is willing to undermine the American people’s faith in the very essence of our democratic process.
At no time in history did we need someone as Chief Executive who was prepared to put their own desire for power above the interests of the American people – but especially not now. We already experienced enough of that during the 1990s, the consequences of which continue to reverberate.
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