Thursday, October 14, 2004
A message from an unreal ally
In the first Presidential debate John Kerry gave us the "global test"; in the third and final one his greatest contribution to geo-strategic thinking was undoubtedly the concept of "real alliances", presumably so called to distinguish them from "unreal alliances":
Having personal attachments to two members of the "unreal coalition" (Australia and Poland) I continue to find Kerry's denigration of America's current allies to be tiresome and disappointing, but most of all laughable. John Edwards talks a lot about "two Americas", but it seems that there also "two universes"; the one where most of us live, and the one inhabited by John Kerry. The Kerryverse is a surreal, looking glass world where concepts are inverted on their head and meanings get twisted into cosmic pretzels of nuance.
Thus, the 30 or so nations that have actually put their troops on the ground in Iraq constitute an unreal alliance, whereas the countries that right from the start were working to stop the United States from going into Iraq and a year and a half later are still refusing to contribute any serious military assistance to help stabilize the country - even if John Kerry becomes the President - are the real alliance.
Already in this campaign we've seen fake but accurate documents; I guess now it's time for a real but unfriendly alliance.
(the left got excited when the German Defense Minister Peter Struck referred to Kerry's Iraq plan as "very sensible" and said that he is open to the idea of German troops going into Iraq if Kerry is elected. Alas, that "opening" did not last too long: "German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday renewed his firm opposition to deploying troops to Iraq, a spokesman said, slapping down hints at a change in policy from his defense minister. Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters that Schroeder had told the cabinet 'clearly and unequivocally' that Germany had no plans to send military personnel to Iraq. 'There will be no German soldiers in Iraq,' Steg said." So much for Kerry's real allies.)
(via my fellow Australian blogger The House of Wheels, who was live-blogging the third debate and was mighty offended by Kerry's remarks.)
Update: Daniel W Casey brings us Kerry's recruitment poster for the "real alliance."
Update II: Via blogger Mad Minerva in comments, the news of another John Kerry slur at our current allies, this time Italy. The earstwhile Democrat contender was quoted as saying that the state of the news Iraqi security forces is so bad that even the Italian army could kick their ass.
Be that as it may, the French army would still surrender to them.
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"But the most important thing to relieve the pressure on all of the armed forces is frankly to run a foreign policy that recognizes that America is strongest when we are working with real alliances, when we are sharing the burdens of the world by working through our statesmanship at the highest levels and our diplomacy to bring other nations to our side...I gather from the above that for Kerry a real alliance is some sort of an international kick-ass rainbow coalition, a United Nations with their helmet on and a gun held firmly in their collective hand, linking arms and sharing the burden all the way with the USA. Alas, the truth of the matter is that in every conflict last century, save for the two world wars, the United States always provided the bulk of the fighting force and the resources, be it in Korea, Vietnam, the First Gulf War or in any of the smaller engagements around the globe. It's a fact of life that Kerry has great problems accepting.
"I believe the president broke faith to the American people in the way that he took this nation to war. He said he would work through a real alliance..."
Having personal attachments to two members of the "unreal coalition" (Australia and Poland) I continue to find Kerry's denigration of America's current allies to be tiresome and disappointing, but most of all laughable. John Edwards talks a lot about "two Americas", but it seems that there also "two universes"; the one where most of us live, and the one inhabited by John Kerry. The Kerryverse is a surreal, looking glass world where concepts are inverted on their head and meanings get twisted into cosmic pretzels of nuance.
Thus, the 30 or so nations that have actually put their troops on the ground in Iraq constitute an unreal alliance, whereas the countries that right from the start were working to stop the United States from going into Iraq and a year and a half later are still refusing to contribute any serious military assistance to help stabilize the country - even if John Kerry becomes the President - are the real alliance.
Already in this campaign we've seen fake but accurate documents; I guess now it's time for a real but unfriendly alliance.
(the left got excited when the German Defense Minister Peter Struck referred to Kerry's Iraq plan as "very sensible" and said that he is open to the idea of German troops going into Iraq if Kerry is elected. Alas, that "opening" did not last too long: "German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday renewed his firm opposition to deploying troops to Iraq, a spokesman said, slapping down hints at a change in policy from his defense minister. Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters that Schroeder had told the cabinet 'clearly and unequivocally' that Germany had no plans to send military personnel to Iraq. 'There will be no German soldiers in Iraq,' Steg said." So much for Kerry's real allies.)
(via my fellow Australian blogger The House of Wheels, who was live-blogging the third debate and was mighty offended by Kerry's remarks.)
Update: Daniel W Casey brings us Kerry's recruitment poster for the "real alliance."
Update II: Via blogger Mad Minerva in comments, the news of another John Kerry slur at our current allies, this time Italy. The earstwhile Democrat contender was quoted as saying that the state of the news Iraqi security forces is so bad that even the Italian army could kick their ass.
Be that as it may, the French army would still surrender to them.
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