Sunday, August 08, 2004

John Kerry = follower or retreater

In this essay, Robert Kagan discussed John Kerry's foreign policy views and concluded that at heart Kerry is a peacenik whose views are in line with some of the farthest left-wing peace protesters from the Vietnam war era.

In this editorial, Max Boot argues that Kerry has been an isolationist, realist and idealist in line with the greater trends within the Democrats: an isolationist in the Cold War, a realist in the early stages of this Iraq War and an interventionist during the Clinton Administration.

So who's right? Boot examines Kerry's voting record; Kagan examines Kerry's speeches. The latter are more revealing because speeches are a window into the candidate's real thought process and because Kerry has been a remarkably undistinguished Senator who is not known for his leadership.

Ultimately, Kagan is right that Kerry is a dangerous peacenik, as I noted in the previous post below, because his bottomline on establishing democracy in Iraq is this:

. . . I think our diplomacy can produce a very different ingredient on the ground. And if it can't produce a different ingredient on the ground, lemme tell you something, that says something about what Iraqis want, and what the people in the region want. I believe that within a year from now, we could significantly reduce American forces in Iraq. And, ah, that's my plan.


Courtesy to redstate.org

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