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08/14/2004:

"An Echo, Not a Choice"

by Steve Chapman commondreams.org
John Kerry is a man of great personal courage, which served him well as a naval officer in the Vietnam War. But the man who takes the inaugural oath in January won't be asked to lead a bayonet charge. A more vital quality in a president is moral courage. And trying to detect evidence of that attribute in Mr. Kerry is like expecting Mikhail Baryshnikov to show up at the county fair.

The latest proof that Mr. Kerry's backbone is made of goose down was his statement that even if he had known what he knows now about Iraq's yet-to-be-found weapons of mass destruction and mythical partnership with al-Qaida, he still would have voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to go to war. "I believe it's the right authority for a president to have," he said.

The Iraq war is shaping up to be the greatest American foreign policy debacle since Vietnam. It has killed nearly 1,000 American soldiers and wounded more than 6,000, while tying down 140,000 troops who are cruelly undermanned. Its price tag has reached $150 billion, with more costs to come. The war and occupation have alienated our friends, inflamed anti-Americanism in the Arab world and diverted us from the war on al-Qaida. If those facts don't convince Mr. Kerry that his vote was a mistake, it's hard to imagine what would.

Actually, it's not so hard to imagine what would cause Mr. Kerry to recant: political expedience. The Massachusetts senator firmly believes something he firmly believed when he voted for the war resolution, which is that he should take the politically safe course no matter what. So he's happy to straddle the fence by criticizing Mr. Bush for taking us down the wrong road in Iraq while refusing to say Congress should have stopped him. And he figures he can stand by his vote because opponents of the war have nowhere else to turn. But they can always turn to Ralph Nader, or just stay home. When it comes to Iraq, after all, Mr. Kerry sounds an awful lot like the guy who got us into this mess. full article

This is not the John Kerry who spoke truth to power in 1971 as a VVAW. He learned his lesson after he voted against Iraq I in 1991.