Kerry and Foreign Policy

Kerry attempted to bamboozle MTV vote rockers in his first “serious” interview since the Swift Boat ad (Sorry, the second serious interview. I forgot about the Daily Show):

Yago: Your exit strategy for Iraq is based on the idea that if you're elected, you'll be able to bring our traditional allies back to the table to help our cause, but what if they say no to you?

Kerry: Well, I have a lot of tools available to me. This president has not done the statesmanship and has not shown the leadership to bring other countries to us. Their resistance to [helping in] Iraq is not only based on Iraq: It's based on the fact that the United States is now pursuing new nuclear weapons, even as we talk about other countries not having them. It's based on the fact that we walked away from the global warming treaty and we dissed 160 nations that worked 10 years to try to build a cooperative attitude. Only the U.S. said "no" and walked away. We haven't paid attention to North Korea, nuclear weapons there. We've ignored AIDS in Africa and elsewhere in the world. So we need to show global, moral, responsible leadership, and if we do that we're going to be far more inviting to other nations to come to our side. In addition, the president has done almost nothing to reduce the increasing clash of radical Islam with moderate Islam and the rest of the world's religions. We need to reach out to people and isolate the fundamentalist extremists and not have them isolate us. That's a big difference. I'll conduct a foreign policy that lives up to America's values, I'll conduct a war that makes America safer, and I will win friends and allies to our side.

One of the problems before 9/11 was that there was no clash between radical Islam and moderate Islam and the rest of the world’s religions. The radicals got away with murder, literally. Sadly, there still isn’t enough of a clash. It took that attack in Beslan for Russia to accept preemption. What’s it going to take for France or Germany? Kerry’s Kyoto malarkey is discussed here. His allegation that we’ve ignored AIDS in Africa is refuted here. His “we haven’t paid attention to North Korea” claim is discounted here.

And then there was the speech he gave in Cincinnati where he framed Iraq in terms of what it was costing us at home. To his credit, Kerry managed to explain how he could afford trillions of dollars in new domestic programs:

After-School Programs:
…$200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford after-school programs for our children…

Veteran Healthcare:
…$200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford health care for our veterans.

Cops:
…$200 billion dollars for Iraq, but they tell us we can't afford to keep the 100,000 police officers we put on the streets during the 1990s.

Slush fund for Education, Heath Care and Job Creation:
…$200 billion that we're not investing in education and health care, job creation here at home…

An extra $200 billion leftover from the “go it alone” fee:
…$200 billion for going it alone in Iraq.

Unemployment or Job Creation:
And while we're spending that $200 billion in Iraq -- that's to this date; it will go on -- 8 million Americans are looking for work here in America.

Health Care Cost:
$200 billion in Iraq, while the costs of health care are going through the roof.

Medicare:
They're charging 17 percent more for Medicare while making America pay $200 billion for a go-it-alone policy in Iraq.

Deficit Reduction:
…we're spending $200 billion in Iraq while we're running up the biggest deficits in American history, the biggest deficits announced yesterday and the biggest debt.

Energy Independence:
...we're spending $200 billion there instead of investing in making America energy independent.

Homeland Security:
...we're spending $200 billion in Iraq, while we're told that we can't afford to do everything that we should be doing for homeland security.

For a total of $2.2 trillion!

Finally, Bill Kristol discusses Kerry's foreign policy shortcomings and his worst enemy, himself.