Senator Kerry needs to start “thinking” and “talking” like an IT professional…;-)
Posted : September 15, 2004 at 12:11 pm [America/Los_Angeles]
On 9/11, three years later
IMUS: Back to the war on terror for a second. There hasn’t been an attack in this country since September 11, 2001, three years. Have we just been lucky? Who gets the credit for that? Is there any credit due anybody?KERRY: Well, I think that the FBI and the CIA are doing a better job than they were doing, and I give them credit for that. I think they’ve done some things better.
But we’re not doing the things as well as we ought to be doing. I’m told that it’s still very easy to get in with passport forgeries and other kinds of things. We know that there are people in the country, and frankly, a lot of the folks that I’ve talked to — I can’t go into all the briefings, but I can tell you that some people scratch their heads and they’re not completely sure why. One thing is certain: Terror is up around the world over the course of the last year or two. And the number of troops that have been killed has been up every single month. It was up in June, it was up in July from June, it was up in August from July. And the fact is that we have whole areas of Iraq now where there are not — where American troops can’t go, where there are terrorists where there weren’t terrorists before. And what the 9/11 widows said yesterday is really important. That the war in Iraq is not the principal war against terror that we were focused on in Afghanistan with Al Qaida. Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida did 9/11. Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida knocked those buildings down, hit the Pentagon, saw that plane, you know, those people courageously give their lives to save the nation’s capital. And they’re not in Iraq. And they weren’t in Iraq. And Iraq was not the focus. The focus of Iraq was weapons of mass destruction. And the president has misled America about those weapons, about the intelligence, about the war. He’s misled America about what we’re achieving today and what is happening on the ground in Iraq. And I think we deserve a president who tells the American people the truth and who has the ability to bring our allies into this effort. The president has alienated so many people that they’re just sitting on the sidelines, not even living up to the resolution of the U.N. that they voted for. And the president doesn’t even seem capable of holding them accountable to
that.
If you read the transcript, you will see why Senator Kerry is no Bill Clinton. I am not sure why he had to actually cite the 9/11 widows to make his point that the war in Iraq is “..not the principal war against terror..”.
I would’ve tackled it somewhat differently. For starters, I would have put the key “message” of two wars and the Iraq War not being “the principal war against terror..” right upfront. Something like:
Imus, let’s be clear here: There are two wars we’ve launched since 9/11 and are still currently fighting - the War on Terror and the Iraq War.
Let’s talk about the “real” War on Terror. The war against Islamic fundamentalist groups such as Al Qaeda. After 9/11, the President declared a War on Terror. Semantics aside, the “idea” behind launching a war against terrorists was the right way to go. I might have complemented it with a few other things, but that’s not the point. The whole world was with us on this. So, yes I think FBI and CIA deserve credit for their work on this War on Terror since 9/11 and I’ve no doubt that there work has played a crucial part in preventing more terrorist attacks here in United States. While we must give credit where it’s due, I think there’s a lot more that could’ve been done and still needs to be done to protect Americans here at home…(and then go on to say his canned lines about how we should have taken steps to protect ports, chemical and nuclear plants, blah, blah, blah)
However, when it comes to this other war, War in Iraq, that is a whole seperate beast which really never had anything to do with 9/11 or President’s subsequent launch of war against terrorists…(and then go on to say his canned lines about how it has been a miserable failure, blah, blah, blah)
What a conundrum for the American voters. The incumbent’s (President Bush) prowess of the English language is infamous, to say the least. The challenger’s command on the English language is better, but he is too verbose and tries to make a point somewhere in the middle of a really long monologue. And while he may’ve said what he wanted to say somewhere in there, it does not help much as not many really “get” it.
I am an IT professional. A programmer. A solutions provider. I like well-defined problem statements and crisp answers or solutions.
Senator Kerry needs to start thinking and talking like a computer programmer as he gets ready for the debates 
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004