Response!
Well,LYT posted this from here.
Well, I actually understand where Pete is coming from here, though there may be a bit of hyperbole. Probably LYTs examples should be higher on the list.
Anyway, I've always viewed the choice of John Kerry as a mistake. Whether or not it was completely fair, there was a perception that he was the ultimate warmed-over flower child, sort of stored in suspended animation a la Austin Powers and then thawed to battle the evils of Neo-Conservatism and the Bush Administration.
Frankly, Kerry didn't do much to fight that perception. I found his invoking of Vietnam to be a real turn off in the grand scale of things... we do live in a new world today, and making peace with radical Islamists is going to be different than rapproachment with the Soviet Union.
So, I think the intention here is to say that Kerry's loss was a major blow to a sort of defeatist attitude in the body politic. Frankly, this may be a bit optimistic for the Right: anti-war sentiment seems to be crystallizing, rather than disbursing, though then again the public doesn't seem much in the mood to elect pessimists. You can make a high-level case for Iraq causing problems for us on a geo-political scale, but the actual war is going pretty well, even if it has seemed slow-moving since the election.
As a minor aside, Iraq is not like Vietnam. I'm really not sure why any war would be like Vietnam, as its circumstances were pretty unique. I don't have a lot of faith in those who constantly relate every armed conflict to one so long ago, especially one with so many casualties, a lack of Congressional approval, a much more primitive army full of conscripts, the backing of an equally-powerful foe, and that lasted almost 20 years. There were some very good lessons to learn, but what they are sort of depends on who you ask. It's way too politicized.
So, if a loss of John Kerry is a loss of a mindset that can be called defeatist, or realistic, depending on the speaker, well, I understand why those on the Right view his defeat as a great victory. Maybe even the biggest one yet.
Well, I feel like I lost track a bit, but I think it's okay. Maybe I'll edit it later (ha, ha).
Uniters, not dividers
My right-wing friend Pete Peterson offers the following:
"By far the biggest success in this war has been the defeat of John F. (wrong war, wrong place, wrong time) Kerry as the standard bearer of the apologists."
Hmm. Not the overthrow of the Taliban. Not the capture of Saddam Hussein.
No, the biggest success on our war against Al Qaeda and/or Iraq is that a Democrat lost the last presidential election. Well shoot, maybe we should have wars more often.
Discuss.
Well, I actually understand where Pete is coming from here, though there may be a bit of hyperbole. Probably LYTs examples should be higher on the list.
Anyway, I've always viewed the choice of John Kerry as a mistake. Whether or not it was completely fair, there was a perception that he was the ultimate warmed-over flower child, sort of stored in suspended animation a la Austin Powers and then thawed to battle the evils of Neo-Conservatism and the Bush Administration.
Frankly, Kerry didn't do much to fight that perception. I found his invoking of Vietnam to be a real turn off in the grand scale of things... we do live in a new world today, and making peace with radical Islamists is going to be different than rapproachment with the Soviet Union.
So, I think the intention here is to say that Kerry's loss was a major blow to a sort of defeatist attitude in the body politic. Frankly, this may be a bit optimistic for the Right: anti-war sentiment seems to be crystallizing, rather than disbursing, though then again the public doesn't seem much in the mood to elect pessimists. You can make a high-level case for Iraq causing problems for us on a geo-political scale, but the actual war is going pretty well, even if it has seemed slow-moving since the election.
As a minor aside, Iraq is not like Vietnam. I'm really not sure why any war would be like Vietnam, as its circumstances were pretty unique. I don't have a lot of faith in those who constantly relate every armed conflict to one so long ago, especially one with so many casualties, a lack of Congressional approval, a much more primitive army full of conscripts, the backing of an equally-powerful foe, and that lasted almost 20 years. There were some very good lessons to learn, but what they are sort of depends on who you ask. It's way too politicized.
So, if a loss of John Kerry is a loss of a mindset that can be called defeatist, or realistic, depending on the speaker, well, I understand why those on the Right view his defeat as a great victory. Maybe even the biggest one yet.
Well, I feel like I lost track a bit, but I think it's okay. Maybe I'll edit it later (ha, ha).
posted by David N. Scott at 12:03 PM
<< Home