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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (16314)	4/20/2004 10:49:32 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 81568

In Iraq, John Kerry wants to take the easy way out. 'Because They Are Hard' BY BRENDAN MINITER Monday, April 19, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard," said John F. Kennedy in September 1962. With every great endeavor there are critics who counsel to turn back at nearly every turn. They say it is too difficult, that it is impossible or that it is better left for someone else to do. John Forbes Kerry is one of these critics. He may share JFK's initials, party and home state, but he isn't shooting for the moon in Iraq. For him democracy in the heart of the Middle East is too hard a goal for his countrymen to achieve. It is true that Mr. Kerry voted for the war and he says he doesn't believe in a "cut and run" strategy. But it is also true that he has used nearly ever bit of negative news to discount, dismiss or argue to slough off on the "international community" the larger goal of building a democracy. Last week he went a step further: "The goal here in my judgment is a stable Iraq," he said, "not whether or not that's a full democracy--I can't tell what it's going to be--but a stable Iraq. And that stability could take several different forms." This sentiment does not originate with Mr. Kerry. President Bush's Iraq policy is revolutionary because it overcomes the idea that Arabs do not desire democracy and aren't capable of running a government based on popular elections. What Mr. Kerry is embracing here is the idea of a strongman--the notion that it's acceptable and possibly even preferable for a strongman to emerge and keep a lid on the chaos for us. This fidelity to stability is what led the U.S. to back Saddam Hussein during the Cold War. Back then instability was a great threat to the West because it offered the Soviet Union an opportunity to use insurgents to topple a teetering regime and set up client states. It was always a Faustian bargain for the West, however, as stability came with a price. In Iraq that meant a strongman who oppressed his people and ultimately turned on the United States. Mr. Kerry is a man of nuance, and it seems Faustian bargains are his forte. But these are the bargains a nation must make when in a position of weakness. And that weakness collapsed with the Berlin Wall in 1989, if not with the Reagan military buildup that helped bring it about. This became readily apparent when the first President Bush was able to take on Saddam in the first Gulf War. Bad habits die hard: Although the elder Mr. Bush risked the instability by calling on Iraqis to rise up against Saddam, he did not act to defend them. When the Soviet Union crumbled, it became possible again to imagine freedom's ascendancy around the world. This is a world that Mr. Kerry seems unable to fathom, even as Mr. Bush pushes for it to be a reality. The president sees liberty as universal: "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." And his policies reveal that America is now willing to take advantage of the post-Cold War world to dare to imagine spreading democracy to lands that have known nothing but warfare and oppression for decades. Mr. Bush believes that Iraqis--like all people--have the right to self-determination and the ability to govern themselves. This, of course, is not simply a charitable act. The most effective way to destroy the incubators of terrorism is to bring democracy to people whose governments are oppressing them. Mr. Bush understands this to be a war not between civilizations, but between civilization and agents of chaos. Spreading civilized government through democracy to the far corners of the world brings the fight to the doorsteps of these agents, gives Muslims the world over a reason to ally with the U.S. in this fight, and ultimately will serve the greater good of humanity. This is not something we do because it is easy. It is hard, and it is something we do because it must be done. opinionjournal.com