One of the most contentious points in the presidential race thusfar has been over how President Bush worked to bring other nationson board for the Iraq War. President Bush has been defensive of hisefforts considering the pains he went through in the United Nationsto convince others to join in. John Kerry has spent his campaignpromoting himself as John Kerry, International Man of Diplomacy, bysaying he would have "brought our allies to our side."
Kerry has attempted to exploit a supposed glaring weakness byinsinuating we acted unilaterally and "pushed our allies aside."Moreover, he's attempted to paint the President's diplomaticefforts as haughty and arrogant. The problem for Kerry is thecharges he's flinging don't stand up under scrutiny and, ifelected, his words can bury him and U.S. diplomatic efforts.
By stating that we've pushed our allies aside, Kerry isinferring that we've ditched traditional Cold War allies and it'snot a stretch to realize he is talking about France, Germany and,most likely, Russia. Though the United States has long been alliedwith France and Germany (and, more recently, Russia), they came tobe at odds with us when it came time to commit militarily.
France, Germany and Russia have voted for several resolutionsdemanding Iraq disarm and turn over all evidence of their WMDprograms, several of which authorized the use of force to compelcompliance. After saying it was time to take action, Bush returnedto the United Nations to get a second resolution for the war,despite having permission. France, Germany and Russia all said theywouldn't vote for it; we went in without them.
Kerry is attempting to paint this scenario as if Bush didn't doenough to get them on board. The problem was no amount of diplomacywould have gotten them on board. Those nations were engaging inunder-the-table deals with Saddam Hussein.
The recently released Duelfer Report illuminates further whythis was the case. Saddam Hussein had been exploiting the U.N.'sOil-For-Food humanitarian aid program to bribe several nations toget the sanctions removed by giving them oil and oil vouchers. Atthe top of the list were France, Germany and Russia. They were alsoengaged in illegal arms sales to Iraq as well. The nations who weresupposed to be our allies were on the take, secretly allied underthe table through clandestine means with a maniacaltotalitarian.
Kerry maintains he could get those nations to our side, but itis highly unlikely given the subversive efforts they were involvedin. Those same "allies" have also indicated that if Kerry iselected, they will still not supply troops to Iraq. Any diplomaticeffectiveness was undercut by the greed of those nations whooverlooked their votes and brokered with a barbarian.
An even bigger problem for Kerry would be our current allies inIraq. Bush has noted there are over 30 of them engaged in Iraq, butKerry and Edwards have not even bothered to recognize the effortsof those nations. By saying he'd have "brought our allies to ourside," Kerry implicitly denies the nations standing with us thehonor they are accorded for their efforts and sacrifices. That willbe discussed later in Part II of this column.
Write to Jeff at
mannedarena@yahoo.com
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