|
|
|
|
10/25/04 Promises, Promises Every time George W. Bush tries to remind the American People of what is really happening, whether in Iraq, the War on Terror, or in the economy, the Kerry-Edwards campaign points to distorted media accounts or their own litany of false claims, and accuses the President of living in a fantasy world. And every time George W. Bush is realistic about the future of the War on Terror, the Democratic machine comes out with a fantasy view of reality that they hope will sell the American People a bill of goods. The fantasy promises of Democrats are usually mundane: "If you elect us, we will save Social Security without raising taxes, we will raise revenues by raising taxes only on the very rich, cut deficits by increasing spending faster than the economy grows, and save the environment without destroying the economy by multiplying the costs of energy and transportation." They never do any of those things. They never try to save Social Security, they always cut revenues by raising taxes, they increase deficits with their profligate spending, and they try to sneak huge increases in energy costs past the American People. But in this campaign, the promises have become even more extravagant. First was the claim by John Edwards that if he and John Kerry are elected, people like the recently-deceased Christopher Reeve, crippled by spinal cord injuries, will "get up out of [their wheelchairs] and walk again." And now John F. Kerry has virtually guaranteed an end to terrorism if he is elected president. President George W. Bush said in a recent interview that it was "up in the air" whether we would ever be able to put an absolute end to terrorist attacks. Common sense is on the President's side. As he says, in order to stop terrorist attacks, we have to be right 100% of the time. In order to succeed at one, the terrorists only have to be right once. Only a fool could believe that we could ever completely shut down terrorism (short of a remedy I have proposed recently but which I think most would reflexively regard as excessive). But John Kerry has seized upon that comment: "You make me president of the United States, we're going to win the war on terror. It's not going to be up in the air whether or not we make America safe." This is the political equivalent of Babe Ruth coming to the plate and pointing to the left field bleachers. Kerry will end terror, and when it is over, no more attacks will happen. And since he has also made many other guarantees, that he will never allow any foreign nation or institution to veto our foreign policy, that he will never take any foreign policy decision that might offend world opinion, that he will never act without absolute certainty that a threat is imminent, and that he will hunt down and kill the terrorists wherever they try to hide, it couldn't be clearer that he will break several of the existing commitments the day he takes office. The evidence from intelligence-gathering is never certain, world opinion is always mixed and carries with it anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-Semitic views that make it impossible to do good without offending large swaths of the world, and letting that deter him would constitute giving the anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-Semites a veto over his foreign policy decisions. And even if he does run rough-shod over his previous (and supposedly entirely consistent, although he voted against the first Gulf War and wanted us to unilaterally disarm in the 1980's instead of winning the Cold War) positions, he will not be able to entirely eradicate terror. So at some point he will be recognized as a failure and as having been entirely disingenuous when he made this vain assertion. John Kerry cannot guarantee that any real remedy for spinal cord injuries is anywhere on the horizon, or that grinding up another million human beings in petri dishes will generate such a cure; he cannot make deficits disappear by increasing spending and curtailing economic growth as his tax increases would do; he cannot wave a magic wand and have two divisions of new soldiers appear from nowhere; he cannot have his foreign policy and intelligence cake and eat it, too, and he cannot claim to be a hawk and thereby make it so. The saying is that "a leopard cannot change his spots." John Kerry is not bothering to change his spots. He's just insisting that we pay no attention to the spots ("those aren't spots, they're war wounds, and I have the Purple Heart citations to prove it!") and vote for him because he's the best lion for the job. The fact is, there is only one lion in the race, and that is George W. Bush. Kerry is just a leopard who doesn't want you to see him for what he is. False promises cannot change the past, and can do nothing but produce false hopes for the future--hopes that may, in fact, guarantee that we get a lot less of what we hoped for than we could have. Don't be fooled. George Bush is the tough, pragmatic realist we need for the most secure future we can have. Modified: 10/27/2004 |
|
|
All Original Content (C) 2003, 2004, 2005 SoothSeeker.Com
SoothSeeker Welcomes your Comments at letters@soothseeker.com Report problems to webmaster@soothseeker.com
Hits on this site:
|