USATODAY.com - For first time, Kerry criticizes Bush's reaction to 9/11 attacks
"I'm asking you to trust our nation, our history, the world, your families in my hands, and I understand that. It's a big (thing to) ask," he said. He told them he learned the lessons of war firsthand. "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror" than Bush, he said.
Just digging up some original source material that Cheney is referencing. Yes, John Kerry wants a more sensitive war on terror. BTW, nobody has been more proactive than President Bush on the war on terror. Sometimes Senator doesn't even bother to show up to vote. Of course, the last significant vote on the war on terror he voted against the continued funding for the war on terror.
Again, it's not about Vietnam but about the war on terror.
Posted by Tim at August 12, 2004 07:49 AMTim, I think Kerry essentially is asking a question like this: Do you really think the big bloody gunfights going on right now in the streets of Iraq by insurgents against American soldiers alone (since insensitive Bush policy has alienated most of our allies) is making your family here in So Cal safer against terrorism?
Dems believe Bush's hamhanded, unilateralist, insensitive approach has made the world less safe. If you look at the polls, I think it's one of the reasons Kerry appears to have a slight lead at this point.
Posted by: Tom at August 13, 2004 06:19 AMTom, I do think that taking the offensive against the terrorists have and will make us safer in the short but even more in the long term. Frankly, I don't care what the polls say. I believe Bush is doing what has to be done to win the war on terror. I honestly believe the terrorists of the world would want Kerry to win.
I don't think many of our allies have the stomach to go the distance in this war on terror. If we end up going it alone then that's what has to be done.
Right, I think most Republicans would agree with your response. I didn't mean to say we should base our personal decisions on a Gallup poll. I meant to say more and more Americans by my review of the polls seem to believe Kerry would be a better President, including a better Commander in Chief.
You're saying "...I don't think many of our allies have the stomach to go the distance in this war on terror...." But that assumes you believe our allies accept the link between US soldiers and insurgents battling mosque to mosque, street to street in Najaf and, for instance, Al Qaeda flying planes 9/11 into the World Trade Center. I don't think our allies believe it. I think less and less Americans believe it.
This isn't the best metaphor, but I tend to see your view a little like saying the battle of Khe Sanh, Vietnam against North Vietnam in 1968 directly helped bring about the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and all of Eastern Europe in the late 1980's.
Posted by: Tom at August 13, 2004 07:56 AM
