OK, I wanted to write a short little LTE, but couldn't quite contain my rant. Anyone want to take a look at this and make suggestions for the long version, or a shorter one?
If you care about the war on terror...
Then you need to vote for John Kerry. What about Bush's "war on terror?" There is none. Bush had to be hounded by the brave "9/11 widows" into allowing congressional inquiry into the tragedy; and he dragged his feet on implementing their suggested security improvements (Kerry and John Edwards immediately endorsed most of the conclusions). Worst of all, he misused the brave men and women of our military by sending them into Iraq instead of crushing Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network that attacked us.
Before those vicious attacks, the Bush administration paid insufficient attention to terrorism and bin Laden. Upon taking office, the outgoing national security advisor and other cabinet officials told Bush and his cabinet that terrorism, and bin Laden in particular, would be their number one concern. They may not have been able to stop the attacks, but they should have at least been paying attention.
Once the attacks occurred, everyone - both sides of congress, most segments of American society, and pretty much the entire free world - supported our war on Al Qaeda and their Taliban collaborators. But Bush pulled out before the job was done. Now Afghanistan is reverting to chaos, the Taliban creeps back in, and bin Laden is on the loose.
We can trust John Kerry to fight the REAL war on terror. He knows how to fight a war (everyone who served on his boat confirms he is a brave leader and war hero). As he proved in the Senate, he also knows how to root out terrorists' financial networks (he investigated and broke up the terror-supporting BCCI bank in the late 1980's and early 1990's). He knows that defending our freedom at home is the biggest priority of government. The 9/11 widows, who successfully pushed to establish the 9/11 investigation, are campaigning for Kerry, because they know he is our best chance to prevent another tragedy.
While Al Qaeda grows, and bin Laden is on the loose, where is Bush? Bogged down in Iraq. Al Qaeda would not be re-taking Afghanistan, and spreading globally, if we had 130,000 troops there, instead of in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a nasty brute, and Iraq an ugly regime. But they were not involved in 9/11, were already well contained, and posed no immediate threat to us. Bush, Cheney, and others swore that we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were - but now we're there, and we can't find any.
We should have first done the job properly in Afghanistan - including rebuilding and winning the support of a free and unfettered Afghani people. Then, we could have continued and extended containment of Iraq, with inspections, and maybe even regime change. Our military superiority was never in question; invasion planning, and the bravery and effectiveness of our troops ensured military victory. But to really win Iraqi freedom would have required extensive political as well as military planning.
Instead, another job has been botched. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind), a respected Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says of the failure to secure Iraq and begin reconstruction "This is the incompetence in the administration." While the situation worsens, as terrorists take root and the Iraqi people turn away from America more than ever, Bush says everything is fine. Senator John McCain, (R-AZ) says Bush is not being "as straight as we would want him to be."
As Colin Powell said "If you break it, you own it." So now we "own" this Iraq mess. Who do we trust to clean it up: The one who retreated from the "war on terror" to make it?
We should put our trust in John Kerry. He knows how to fight a war, he knows how to prosecute crimes, he knows how to root out terrorists, and he knows how to win, rather than squander, international support. Despite Bush and Cheney's name calling, Kerry's position on the Iraq war has been steadfast. If you doubt this, read the speech he gave Oct 9, 2002, when he voted to authorize President Bush to take military action if absolutely necessary (http://www.independentsforkerry.org/uploads/media/kerry-iraq.html).
Bush and Cheney exploited our nations worst terror attacks to pick a new fight with an old foe. John Kerry and John Edwards will win the real war on terror.