Click the link above to read a thought-provoking editorial from the Toronto Star.
I would say to the author:
Your perspective is logical, but I don't think you quite have a handle on the American situation.
When you write...
That leaves most Americans feeling misled, or duped. They can see the damage to U.S. prestige internationally. The loss of more than 1,000 American and allied lives, and 16,000 Iraqi lives . A $200-billion cost.
...you are not speaking of the average American. A solid majority do NOT understand how unimaginably badly our U.S. prestige is damaged. It hasn't sunk in. They don't have a clue.
I'm glad to see you put a number on the Iraqi lives lost, because in this country's news reports, I never see it except as a vague afterthought, as in "...and also thousands of Iraqi lives." (This mortifies me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.)
I feel betrayed by our President, and I think J. Kerry has his finger on the reason. After 9/11, facing a new, unknown, threat, people might be forgiven for thinking that the country's leadership needed to be light on its feet, and give more executive power to a leader. But even as the threat was new, our President's response was also new. Who knew that we had a President who isn't sure what a president is? Who doesn't understand that his legitimate power comes from being part of a vast organization to which and for which he is responsible? He is like a schoolboy president of a school organization who hasn't learned democratic procedure yet and just thinks he is the boss. What a disaster this is!
I think J. Kerry has a very STRONG sense of government, of its laws and it's myriad legitimate voices. In his more complex understanding role of President, it is allowable to have voted as he did.
But you're right, it's the wrong thing to say in an election. J. Kerry's appropriateness as "a serious man for a serious job" is unfortunately not an asset in the "democratic" election process in U.S.America.
And since it's too late to do the right thing about Iraq, hindsight is just as problematic, since there's this huge mess, and we are in it, and we are responsible to clean up. (I don't know if it's possible, but the responsibility is still there.)
It's a time for prayer. And campaigning.
[Added Aug 19.
Fareed Zakaria brings his knowledge to this question as in this Newsweek article:
Why Kerry Is Right on Iraq by Fareed Zakaria]
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