Tuesday, October 05, 2004
The reality check
The only thing from Thursday's debate that R's have latched on to is Kerry's poor choice of words ("global test") to describe the idea that the president needs to present evidence to the people and the world before declaring a pre-emptive war. Naturally, the R's have imagined "global test" means a French veto (because they hate the French, and because the oppose any restraint on American power). But Kerry isn't arguing for a foreign veto on US war decisions---he's just asking for a reality check before starting a war. And the reality check is for the benefit of everyone: the people, Congress, and the world.
God I hope Edwards and Kerry knock this one out of the park in the next two debates. All they need to say is that the US can always decide to go to war on its own, but that the president shouldn't be all-powerful--he has to answer to the people, and he shouldn't squander his credibility by lying to the people and the world about the need for war. Say that "global test" was a poor choice of words; what Kerry really meant was a reality check:
You won't see that quote on Republican blogs or Republican speeches. If they so much as quote a full sentence, their interpretation falls apart.
God I hope Edwards and Kerry knock this one out of the park in the next two debates. All they need to say is that the US can always decide to go to war on its own, but that the president shouldn't be all-powerful--he has to answer to the people, and he shouldn't squander his credibility by lying to the people and the world about the need for war. Say that "global test" was a poor choice of words; what Kerry really meant was a reality check:
No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you've got to do in a way that passes the test—that passes the global test—where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing, and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.
Here we have our own secretary of state who's had to apologize to the world for the presentation he made to the United Nations. I mean, we can remember when President Kennedy, in the Cuban missile crisis, sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with [French President Charles] de Gaulle, and in the middle of the discussion to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, [the secretary of state] said, "Here, let me show you the photos." And de Gaulle waved them off, and said, "No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me." How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we've done, in that way?
You won't see that quote on Republican blogs or Republican speeches. If they so much as quote a full sentence, their interpretation falls apart.
