Feb 10, 2004

Questions for Kerry, Neo-Con Identity Problems, etc.

by Liberty and Power

Much belated thanks for those of you suggested questions for me to ask John Kerry when, and if, I have dinner with him. Among them were pointed probes about Kosovo, his vote approving the Iraq war, and Vietnam atrocities. Others were more philosophical. Pat Lynch suggested that I query about why so few American politicians talk about liberty. In some ways, Jonathan Dresner's question was the stumper of the bunch. Can Kerry name examples of any good aspects of Bush's administration? That would throw him for a loop. I will keep you posted.

Speaking of Kerry and Kosovo, there is still an old 1999 article on his website from the Boston Globe in which it urges the U.S. to "stay the course" in Kosovo . The Wilsonian rhetoric in the article is so effusive that it could have easily been a cover story at the time for the Weekly Standard or Frontpage as an illustration of how another peacenik had"seen the light." Courtesy of Julian Sanchez , Michael Lind of the Nation pokes fun at neo-con attempts to deny their own existence.

Finally, it is nice to see that Alina Stefanescu is back in the blogging saddle with a thoughtful piece on Vaclav Havel's novel defense of enterpreneurship .

More Comments:

Charles Johnson - 2/10/2004

What strange madness has seized the mind of John Kerry since he entered the halls of power? (But perhaps I answer my own question.)

When he was younger and wiser, this is what John Kerry had to say about these ridiculous appeals to 'staying the course' (whether in Kosovo or in Iraq):

"Now we are told that the men who fought there must watch quietly while American lives are lost so that we can exercise the incredible arrogance of Vietnamizing the Vietnamese.

Each day to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her hands of Vietnam someone has to give up his life so that the United States doesn't have to admit something that the entire world already knows, so that we can't say that we have made a mistake. Someone has to die so that President Nixon won't be, and these are his words, 'the first President to lose a war.'

We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"