Posted on 03/15/2004 8:37:11 PM PST by Frank T
March 7, 2004 Kerry is everything George Bush is not By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor
MINNEAPOLIS -- Struggling to find the worst thing he could say about Sen. John Kerry, a senior member of the Bush administration proclaimed last year, "He looks so ... so ... French!"
By "French," the Bushite must have meant well educated, articulate, dignified, sophisticated, worldly - everything President George W. Bush, who likes to play tough Texas Ranger, is not.
However, being educated and sophisticated is not a political asset in America's heartland - parts of the midwest, mountain states, and south, where Bush is often venerated with the kind of mindless adulation North Koreans shower on their "Beloved Leader," Kim Jong-il.
The United States is unique among advanced nations in demanding wealthy career politicians running for high office pretend they are simple working-class fellows who drink beer and bowl.
Members of the Soviet ruling elite, who secretly lived like Turkish pashas, used to also claim they were simple factory workers fulfilling their civic duty to the Motherland.
Last week's "Super Tuesday" primaries here in Minnesota and nine other states, confirmed that this fall, the "Frenchman" will be the Democratic party candidate to oppose Bush, of Crawford, Texas.
From Buenos Aires to Beijing, people are asking, if Kerry were to win election, how would his foreign policies differ from that of the Bush administration, which, Kerry charges, "has run the most inept, reckless, arrogant and ideological foreign policy in the modern history of our country"?
Kerry is absolutely right. Remember, when Bush was running for president, he promised a "humble" foreign policy that would be "low-key" and avoid foreign entanglements. At the time, Bush showed himself shockingly ignorant of foreign affairs, and did not even know the name of Pakistan's leader.
But once in office, the Bush administration, even before 9/11, embarked on plans to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. It adopted a confrontational policy with Europe, a major arms buildup, and threw U.S. support behind Israel's right-wing leader, Ariel Sharon.
Cheney's no moderate
Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly viewed as a moderate, revealed himself to be an extreme rightist who packed the administration's security and foreign policy ranks with fellow ideologues.
Kerry may be counted on to return the U.S. to its pre-Bush foreign policy, beginning by improving relations with Europe's core nations, France and Germany. To the horror of many Bushites, whose preferred language appears to be speaking in tongues, the Boston senator reportedly speaks ... French.
Sen. Kerry calls for more co-operation with the UN and other world bodies. He vows to end the Bush administration's militarization of U.S. foreign policy and its aggressive behaviour toward nations that fail to comply with the White House's diktat.
Kerry supports the Kyoto environmental treaty, though Congress will be unlikely to ever accept it in its present form.
But if elected, Kerry will face powerful institutional forces opposed to any change in policy direction, particularly in the Mideast, Washington's biggest foreign policy headache.
Bush and his neo-con mentors blundered the U.S. into twin hornets' nests in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It's unlikely Washington will be able to fully impose its political will on either nation, given growing armed resistance and civil chaos. These neo-colonial misadventures are costing over $6 billion monthly and tie down almost half the U.S. Army.
Any efforts to withdraw from these fiascos will produce storms of protests about "loss of credibility" and "abetting terrorism." The military-industrial-petroleum complex, which benefits greatly from these wars and Bush's reckless military spending, will strain every sinew to keep U.S. forces engaged abroad.
Washington's pro-Israel lobby is already putting pressure on Kerry to agree to block any viable Palestinian state and he is being urged to appoint strongly pro-Israel Mideast advisers.
The only hopeful sign is that Kerry may bring back Clinton-era advisers aligned with Israel's moderate Labour Party - like Dennis Ross and Sandy Berger - to replace some of the Likud party's American supporters, notably Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle and Elliot Abrams, who now help to run U.S. Mideast policy.
Under Kerry, U.S. foreign policy may be less driven by the imperative to dominate oil, and more by traditional multilateralism. But the oil lobby has enormous influence over Congress and deep pockets. World oil reserves are depleting faster than expected.
If Canadians and non-Americans could vote in November, John Kerry would win in a landslide. George Bush is reviled around the world.
According to some polls, he is even regarded as a greater danger than Osama bin Laden. This is how low the U.S. has sunk in world esteem.
This makes many Americans shudder.
But Bush's heartland supporters couldn't care less about the rest of the world. To them, Bush is waging a holy war against Islamic terrorism, protecting civilization, and cutting taxes. They thrill to his flag-waving and ersatz patriotism.
Bush fans want a Texas Ranger as commander-in-chief, not a stuffy suit from Boston who doesn't even chew gum. That Kerry was a decorated veteran while Bush avoided service in Vietnam seems not to matter.
Besides, Kerry looks French.
Eric can be reached by e-mail at margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com
Funny she should mention the NKs. They want Kerry to be president bad.
Ultimate snobbery.
ROFLMAO!!! I don't think I've ever heard that word used in that context.
Whatever. "Blunder" is not the verb I would choose. "Everybody" except the terrorists supported the Afghan thing, and Iraq was a calulated risk taking operation, with high rewards if it works, and some payoff even if it does not. In any event, the latter was a great humaniarian gesture. And I support those kinds of "adventures." It is what makes this great land of ours so special and splendid.
True. But that's no compliment to Kerry.
Pretty much sums up the truth in this "article".
The "French"? They are naive, cowardly, completely unable to acticulate a consistant argument other than surrender to anybody who threatens them.
Bush makes the French (by the way I am of French ancestry) look like the pretend intellectuals and genuine cowards they really are. They make me sick. I thank God every day that my ancestors escaped from France.
Remember, the press has said made out every republican since at least 1964 put to be either a complete idiot, or totally evil.
Barry Goldwater: Evil lunatic
Richard Nixon: Evil genius
Gerald Ford: Stumbling idiot
Ronald Reagan: B-movie actor idiot whos monkey costar was smarter
George HW Bush: Can Barely put to sentences together
Bob Dole: Boring old stiff who doesnt get it (i.e. neo-idiot)
George W. Bush: Amazingly, Idiot AND Evil Genius
Kerry is:
an unashamed liberal
coward
anti-American
pro-Communist
liar
crook
makes more waffles than an IHOP
terrorist appeaser
hates the military
loves the UN
anti-capitalism and staunchly pro-socialism
never met a tax he didn't like
never met a dictator he didn't like
despises the need to defend freedom
a strong, principled leader in a time of war
Feel free to add to the list - but in fact, Kerry is everything that Bush is not.
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