I skimmed through Kerry's book

[La_Serpiente]

I went to Borders tonight and was looking at all the books. I saw Alan Colmes' book, "Red, White, and Liberal" and I was like :puke:

Anyhow, right next to Colmes' book was Kerry's new one. I was very interested in looking at what he had to say about the war. I searched through the entire book, and I found his section on the time when the war resolution was going to Congress.

Here is his book:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2WQFH353YA&isbn=0670032603&itm=1

To summarize what he said, he berated unilateralism and isolationalism were unhealthy. He explicitly said that he was a multilateralist.

No problem with that. It is nice to see that he has faith in the UN and NATO. He also criticized France and Germany (Eurobashing anyone???). He basically didn't like Germany's neo-pacifism and

France's wanting to create a power that would balance with the US. Is this Eurobashing in order for him to gain votes???

I thought about it for a little while and thought that his analysis was justified. He basically said that Germany's passiveness was threatning the mandate of NATO since they didn't want to enforce its resolutions. One reason I could think of is that Germany probably wanted to lift the sanctions against Iraq because the citizens were suffering there. He thought that France's attempts to make themselves a superpower to counter US influence was stupid and foolish. Personally, I think that France's posistion is justified due to the rise of unchecked American power.

Anyhow, this wasn't what I was looking for. I was looking as to why he voted for the Iraq resolution and how he can merge his vote with his statement that he was a multi-lateralist.

I was a bit dissapointed because he barely touched upon it. He said that the UN needs to be prodded by the US sometimes in order for it to enforce its mandates. I agree with that statement.

But he barely touched upon it.

I am a Dean supporter but I could switch. I believe one of the main reasons why people are coalescing around Dean is for a few reasons.

1) He has established himself as the anti-war candidate.
2) I am sure he has a lot of homosexual supporters.
3) His rural policy (He actually is pretty educated in this topic).

Those are some reasons why people like Dean.

Now, I admit that I had a blind rage against those who voted for the Iraq war resolution and am finally coming to my senses. I was very angry about it. However, I am willing to be open minded to other candidates. I am willing to take a second look at Kerry's posistion and then I will make my decision.

However, Kerry has barely mentioned it. At least during the debates.

I don't want his answer to come from news source. I want to hear it from him.

Why is Gephardt and Kerry criticizing Dean about Medicare? I don't think Dean people will listen to that. I just don't think it is that big of a issue for them as opposed to the war vote.

Kerry is trying to win New Hampshire. He is not going to win it by trying to get more supporters that don't belong to Dean. He is going to have to get supporters from Dean himself.

I think Kerry really needs to explain himself in a statement that is less than 4 minutes without a journalist's interruption. I wouldn't advise him to criticize Dean during that 4 minutes. Dean people will just think of him as being an opportunist. He can do that one or two days after when Dean criticizes him. However, he should focus that time on why he did what he did and explain himself. I think many Democratic voters have looked past the rage.

I'm sure if Kerry does this, he will become the next JFK.

Some other things I was concerned about in Kerry's book was that he didn't mention the Wall in Israel. He also mentioned the security of Israel but not the human rights of the Palestinians. That was a bit disconcerting.

Aside from those concerns of mine, I thought there were some positive areas in the book as well.

I could really tell that he had ideas and a vision for this country. It was quite evident in the book. The vision was clearly there.

So Kerry has a lot of substance to him. At least in my eyes. He just has a hurdle to cross.

As far as the homosexual supporters, I don't think they are angry at Kerry. Kerry has voted 100 percent with the Human Rights Campaign. However, it's just that Dean has a better track record at it since he signed the legislation. Dean could've put up a constitutional amendment to the voters, but instead he risked his life (seriously. He was wearing Kelvar vests) and his reputation and got it through the legislature.

And Kerry could work on his rural policy.

These are just some observations of mine. You can e-mail it to the Kerry campaign if you want. I don't really care.

I know for a fact that many Dean supporters would go to Kerry's camp as a second choice.

But I'll be looking for a televised and personal statement from him within the next coming weeks.

In the meantime, bottoms up :beer: :beer: :beer: ;-) :hi:

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I like Kerry, but...

I can't make much sense out of a lot of what he's said about the war. It seems like he's gradually putting his thoughts together and trying to come up with a statement that won't piss off the hawks out there.

He also seems to have missed that part about Germany's constitution not allowing military operations outside of its borders. Something to do with the last two times it had operations outside of its borders. Germany seems to have a capacity for pacifism equal to its past abilities at war, and that just grates some people.

And, it's not only France that would like to relive its influence under Louis XIV, but they are the loudest about it. The entire concept of the EU is to unify itself as a balancing power to US economic hegemony. After thousands of years of slaughtering each other, they seem to like living in peace and prosperity for the past 50 years without the threat of their neighbors waltzing in with armies. Now that the Russian threat is reduced, it seems they would prefer to just go on about their business and forget about world domination.

For now, anyway.

[BlackVelvet]

2. Kerry is just another Skull & Bones

frat boy. He and Dubya are probably pals.

[La_Serpiente]

4. Welcome to the DU Club

:hi: :hi: :hi:

[Kellanved]

5. German Constitution

Was changed to allow military actions outside Germany under UN and/or NATO command. Wars of Aggression are banned - and Iraq did not qualify as anything else (Kosovo was borderline).
Germany helped the US war effort in all possible ways; thousands of German troops and equipment was deployed to protect Iraq's neigbours, guard US supply routes and bases in Germany. Infact Germany plegded more material and manpower than Australia.

AFAIK the only nation to actually trying to hinder the war was Austria - they even closed their airspace (strange that Arnold has/had no problems with that - he is affiliated with the governing Austrian party).

In any case: Germany is not a pacifist nation - it may be on the way to become one, but isn't one yet.

[blm]

6. Kerry's dismay was at the probability that international institutions

were in danger of being dissolved by the ill blood that was being created by Bush, but, was everyone's duty to combat.

[joeybee12]

3. Interesting, but Kerry is not the second choice for this deanie, Clark is

Kerry was my first choice at one time, in spite of his voting for the Iraq resolution, but I have yet to hear him give a good explanation for his reasoning.

He's lost me. It's now Dean, then Clark, and quite frankly, I don't think Kerry has much of a shot anymore. If it's not Dean or Clark (highly unlikely) then someone from the bottom of the pack will shoot up--Kerry has gone as high as he can, he's going to start losing support, rather than gain it.