The part in the presidential debate I liked best was when Kerry said (shades of Miguel de Cervantes):
"The terrorism czar, who has worked for every president since Ronald Reagan, said, "Invading Iraq in response to 9/11 would be like Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor." That's what we have here."
But this involved something of a logical volte-face, because just before that, when Lehrer asked "Are Americans now dying in Iraq for a mistake?" Kerry answered:
"No, and they don't have to, providing we have the leadership that we put -- that I'm offering. I believe that we have to win this. The president and I have always agreed on that."
So first he's implying Americans got into a fight by mistake (attacking a windmill, as it were), but then he's saying it wasn't a really mistake anyhow, and they have to win it regardless, with a new leadership.
You can hardly blame Mr Bush for believing this doesn't make sense. Kerry would have been on stronger ground if he'd said the president had got the country in a mess, and that a new presidential team is required to get out of it, or some such thing. Even so, he himself voted for the war, and in reality there is no real intention of withdrawal from Iraq.
Ralph Nader expressed the real situation very clearly in his response: "Neither President Bush or Senator Kerry have an exit strategy for the war in Iraq and both of them say we're going to win the war in Iraq�which means an endless occupation, which breeds resistance, and which does not cut the bottom out of the insurgency, because mainstream Iraqis are given no light at the end of the tunnel that they're going to get their country back with a set schedule under a US military and corporate (i.e. oil company) withdrawal from their nation."
Meantime it seems the real "hard work" of lobbying is being done by Colin Powell.
Here in Europe the feeling seems to be Kerry scored marginally better, but then a majority of Europeans are anti-Bush.
Jurriaan
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