Well, the sad news is that some of the better political brains out there have deduced that Kerry will likely be...and really this is the best word for this...fucked if he wins. He's going to have to tackle that Republican Congress. Unless we can suddenly see clear to some understanding on some issues...and by we I mean everyone on the left and right...we are headed down a particularly bad road.
As far as Iraq goes there is now no cut and run strategy. We need to involve the rest of the world to get moving in the right direction. We also have to stop saying that we're bringing "freedom and democracy" to that country. These people have their own ideas about government and how to govern people and the minute we get the fuck out of the way they will revert back to those ideas.
In the US we think of the Christian Right as radicals...well they like to have bake sales and church picnics and even though they see fit to meddle in politics it's nothing compared to how Iraqis see things. See for them there is no separation between church and state. It's Kevin G's dream world over there. The religion is part of the politics...always has been...always will be. They will kill eachother and believe in killing eachother to make that point.
Picture Kevin G and a group from his church rising up to slaughter Peter T and a bunch of folks from New Hampshire to make sure they don't allow abortion in his state and you're getting close to the scene. In the meantime you've got PRH and Brad trying to explain the idea of freedom and democracy and waxing all poetic about the Bill Of Rights and Constitution. You think Kevin G's radical fundamentalists are going to stop hacking up Peter and his pals for one second to listen to the nice shit PRH and Brad have to say? Nope, course not...they will forward their agenda the best way they know how.
So, we need to be realistic about Iraq. Not live in the Bushco fantasy world of Iraq. We need to start making nice with all the nations of the world that can assist us there and let the Iraqi's come to terms...their own terms...about who will govern them and how. We also have to be realistic about the fact that a shitload more Iraqi's will likely be dead before that happens.
The best case scenario right now is that a shitload of Americans don't end up dead in the process. The way to begin that process is to allow the UN and the rest of the world into Iraq to be part of the party. Share in the contracts and rebuilding etc. We've sacrificed 700 soldiers and counting to the cause, we've got this June timetable going, and the Iraqi's have decided to take things into their own hands.
Only rightwing nutjobs buy into the idea that these people are going to trade thousands of years of beliefs and traditions in for a copy of our constitution and a Burger King on every corner. You can probably count the Iraqis on one hand that understand our brand of freedom and democracy...shit even most of the people that live in the United States don't understand it...so why the hell would anyone think we're going to turn Iraq into a democracy? They don't want one and they don't want to know what one is.
We have a lot of people in this country that think we have cornered the market on the best way to live...well sorry but there are folks all over the world that have ideas of their own and share the obviously misguided belief that they have the right to think that way.
Kerry at least gives us the chance to begin moving in the right direction and will be a better statesman than Bush could be if he lived a thousand lifetimes. Pat once asked here who a terrorist would prefer as president of the United States. Well, I think the answer to that would be George Bush. He's done more than any single human being to promote terrorism worldwide. He's made Osama bin Laden a world wide celebrity and hero to many. He is the symbol to terrorists worldwide of the beaten American president because they defeated him on 9/11. They continue to defeat him day after day as the Iraqis rise up against us...as he pronounces we are bringing them Amercan freedom and democracy and they kill our soldiers. They defeat him when Spain pulls out it's troops. When other nations fail to back him. When Osama grows balls the size of watermelons and starts offering truce deals to European nations on his own.
Bush is the face of American weakness worldwide. He has been part of regularly insulting nations from Canada to the Far East and because of that we get no more than token support from other nations in our cause.
That should not be happening because a joint effort on terror benefits all nations but Bush and his crew have blown it.
So, I certainly think Kerry is our best hope. It won't be easy but four more years of Bush will be more than painful...it will be an honest to God bloody mess.
