Senator Kerry speaketh again, this time focussing on Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Remember Osama..;-)
Posted : September 24, 2004 at 12:45 pm [America/Los_Angeles]
[via Speech at Temple University]
My favorite line of the speech:
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My fellow Americans, the most urgent national security challenge we face is the war against those who attacked our country on September 11th, the war against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
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So, what’s great about that line, you ask? Well, think about it. In one line, Senator Kerry shows that he sees things “clearly”, as clearly as President Bush saw back on Sep. 12th when he said “We’ll hunt them down and bring them to justice.” Somehow and somewhere he lost track. Saddam Husain and Baathists became more important than Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. And since then, it has been nothing but “deceptions”, “excuses” and sometimes “outright lies”.
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President Bush was right to invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban. I supported that decision. So did our country and our allies. So did the world.
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See Mr. President, this man (along with others, including Yours truly) have no problem giving credit where it’s due. Whatever you did before and on 9/11/2001, you did great in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. You led. And for that, I salute you. Heck, as the Senator said, the whole world was with you.
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The war on terror is as monumental a struggle as the Cold War. Its outcome will determine whether we and our children live in freedom or in fear. It is not, as some people think, a clash of civilizations. Radical Islamic fundamentalism is not the true face of Islam. This is a clash between civilization and the enemies of civilization; between humanity’s best hopes and most primitive fears.
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Well said.
The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy – Al Qaeda — which killed more than three thousand people on 9/11 and which still plots our destruction today. And there’s just no question about it: the President’s misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement of the war in Iraq all make the war on terror harder to win. Iraq is now what it was not before the war – a haven for terrorists. George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority. I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority. As president, I will finish the job in Iraq and refocus our energies on the real war on terror.
Yup. Could not agree more, Senator.
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I will make Afghanistan a priority again, because it is still the front line in the war on terror.
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Once again, the Senator shows that he has a better understanding of who we really ought to be fighting and where they really are. Yes, many of them have descended upon Iraq, but the real “leaders”, the ones who mastermind these terror attacks, they’re all still very much in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s NW Frontier province. Work with Afghanistan and Pakistan. They need you as much as you need them. Using President Bush’s lingo here, let’s go back in there with our allies and “smoke ‘em out”.
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Fifth, as we go after the terrorists and secure our homeland, I will focus on the long-term frontline of this war. To defeat the terrorists’ aims, we must deny them recruits and safe havens.
For al Qaeda, this war is a struggle for the heart and soul of the Muslim world. We will win this war only if the terrorists lose that struggle. We will win when ordinary people from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan to Indonesia know they have more to live for than to die for. We will win when they once again see America as the champion, not the enemy, of their legitimate yearning to live in just and peaceful societies. We will win when we stop isolating ourselves and start isolating our enemies. The world knows the difference between empty promises and genuine commitment.
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More than 50 percent of the population in the Arab and Muslim world is under the age of 25. The future is a race between schools that spark learning and schools that teach hate. We have to preempt the haters. We have to win the war of ideas. New generations must believe there is more to life than salvation through martyrdom.
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I find this (along with a just resolution of the Israel and Palestine mess) the ONLY way United States of America can win this War on Terror. Period.
And finally, the favorite quote of the speech:
But the Bush administration would have you believe that when it comes to our allies, it won’t make a difference who is president. They say the Europeans won’t help us, no matter what. We’re not going to get more cooperation in the war on terror, no matter what. Ordinary people around the world will resent us, no matter what. But I have news for President Bush: just because you can’t do something, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
Let me repeat that again, “..Just because you can’t do something, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.” Ouch.
As Col. Frank Slade (Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman) would say, “Hoo ha!!” 
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004