you have another interpretation? We would love to hear it....
enlighten us with "the truth"......
I'm not going to put words in Kerry's mouth, but I certainly wouldn't interpret it as giving Russia a veto over the US's national defense. That interpretation is just stupid.
What he did say right after the global test comment was along the lines of "you have to be able to explain your actions to your friends, and the reasons for your actions should be defensible", or something like that, which sounds totally reasonable.
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Just for fun I'll take a shot at what Kerry may mean by a "global test" (he also hasn't explained it very well, so this is just conjecture). America is used to being one of the countries in the world that stands for and promotes freedom, democracy, equality, liberty, human rights, and the rule of law - the stuff laid out in the Constitution and Bill or Rights. All of these concepts are explainable and defensible to "American friends", and pretty much define who is and is not and "American friend" (American friends adopt these values as well). The Chinese, for example, fall into the category of countries America tries to get along with, but their leadership values are unAmerican and the country, at the moment, is not one of "our friends". Actions taken to promote those values would pass Kerry's mysterious "global test".
And he has said that American action abroad should pass the mysterious global test (in other words, the action promotes those values listed above which are universally accepted by America's friends). That seems reasonable. Nevertheless, this is all conjecture on my part, because I think he only mentioned this Global Test idea once! I don't think its the basis for his campaign or whatnot, it's just something the GOP has jumped on to convince their faithful of the crazy idea that Kerry would give other nations control over US national security. |
