Why I Have Nightmares About a Kerry Presidency
I’m not the only one being chilled to the bone by this statement. Lileks. Instapundit. Volokh. All mention this. It’s the reason why I believe with all my heart that Kerry is the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time. He is now more than ever UNFIT FOR COMMAND. Let’s go with Lileks:
Finally, this from the NYT, ably dissected by the Volohkians:
When I asked Kerry what it would take for Americans to feel safe again, he displayed a much less apocalyptic worldview. “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” Kerry said. “As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”
Tony Soprano doesn’t take over schools and shoot kids in the back. The doxies of the Bunny Ranch don’t train at flight schools to ram brothels into skyscrapers.
A nuisance?
A nuisance? I don’t want the definition of success of terrorism to be “it isn’t on the rise.” I want the definition of success to be “free democratic states in the Middle East and the cessation of support of those governments and fascist states we haven’t gotten around to kicking in the ass yet.” I want the definition of success to mean a free Lebanon and free Iran and a Saudi Arabia that realizes there’s no point in funding the fundies. An Egypt that stops pouring out the Jew-hatred as a form of political novacaine to keep the citizens from turning their ire on their own government. I want the definition of success to mean that Europe takes a stand against the Islamicist radicals in their midst before the Wahabbi poison is the only acceptable strain on the continent. Mosquito bites are a nuisance. Cable outages are a nuisance. Someone shooting up a school in Montana or California or Maine on behalf of the brave martyrs of Fallujah isn’t a nuisance. It’s war.
But that’s not the key phrase. This matters: We have to get back to the place we were.But when we were there we were blind. When we were there we losing. When we were there we died. We have to get back to the place we were. We have to get back to 9/10? We have to get back to the place we were. So we can go through it all again? We have to get back to the place we were. And forget all we’ve learned and done? We have to get back to the place we were. No. I don’t want to go back there. Planes into towers. That changed the terms. I am remarkably disinterested in returning to a place where such things are unimaginable. Where our nighmares are their dreams.
We have to get back to the place we were.
No. We have to go the place where they are.
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Hey Scott -
You know where I stand on Kerry vs. Bush, and this is not going to change my vote, but….
I agree with you. I think I understand the point Kerry was trying to make, sort of, but his statement is fatuous. It minimizes, stupidly, the threat posed by fanatic Islamic terrorism.
I agree. We cannot and must not go back to 9/10. The threat we face is not comparable to organized crime or prostitution.
Cheers -
Comment by Russell Lane — 10/11/2004 @ 8:25 pm
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You’re right. This website was born after Sept 11, and I doubt it would have happened in your hypothetical. And I am not so attached to it that I would not sacrifice it if it would bring one of those killed on 9-11 back from the ashes.
What culture are we “shoving down people’s throats?” Democracy? Freedom? By your logic, Nazis would still be running Germany, the Japanese would still be worshipping their emperor, and every major genocide that could have happened would have happened. That “cultural imperialist” argument won’t work when the Germans are pissed off that we are cutting our troop numbers in Germany, when there aren’t any soldiers on either side of the border in Canada, and when Europe has the audacity to preach to America after several wars and genocides over the last hundred years.
There are universals in this world, which many moral relativists like you may have forgotten. By your logic people have a right to oppression. So much for Amnesty International.
Freedom is an unalienable right to every person on this planet. If you no longer believe that, then stop thinking yourself as being a liberal because your belief is one of the most reactionary around.
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