The Differences Between Bush and Kerry
Even if Kerry was a hawkish neocon who was obsessed with Saddam, the similarities between Bush and Kerry’s views of the Iraq war end with the Congressional resolution to authorize the use of force. This Washington Post article makes the point well (via Daniel Drezner):
Bush’s position is that if Kerry agrees with him that Hussein was a problem, then Kerry agrees with his Iraq policy. Doing something about Iraq meant doing what Bush did. But is that true? Did the United States have to go to war before the weapons inspectors had finished their job? Did it have to junk the U.N. process? Did it have to invade with insufficient troops to provide order and stability in Iraq? Did it have to occupy a foreign country with no cover of legitimacy from the world community? Did it have to ignore the State Department’s postwar planning? Did it have to pack the Iraqi Governing Council with unpopular exiles, disband the army and engage in radical de-Baathification? Did it have to spend a fraction of the money allocated for Iraqi reconstruction — and have that be mired in charges of corruption and favoritism? Was all this an inevitable consequence of dealing with the problem of Saddam Hussein?
While many on the left would rather cede the point that the views of Bush and Kerry are the same on Iraq, I think it’s important to confront charges like these head-on and shine light on the fact that Bush is a complete screwup.
While I’ve been pretty vocal about what I thought was a chickenshit move by the Democrats to authorize Bush’s war approval, the time for infighting about this issue is over. Especially when the differences between the candidates are clear to everyone who’s willing to examine the war on terms other than the ones that are outlined by the Republican party. The GOP wants to convince voters that there’s no difference between Kerry or Bush on Iraq, because they know that undecideds will hesitate to go for a challenger who doesn’t differ drastically from the incumbent. Their goal is to subconsciously convince voters that every mistake Bush made was inevitable and that the only decision-making process that should be examined is that one that took place on the floor of the senate.
It bears repeating that Bush was given a free pass and he squandered it. Every decision he made was bad, and it’s unfair to pin that blame on the Democrats who gave him the authorization. It’s not Kerry’s fault that Bush kneecapped the weapons inspectors, punished every person who gave him realistic estimates for the war’s cost (in terms of dollars and personnel), or was too goddamned stupid to realize that Iraq’s rival factions wouldn’t be very happy about an American-installed “democracy”. If Kerry’s lame decision to back the Iraq war resolution should be held up to scrutiny, so should every decision that Bush made regarding the war’s planning and execution.
That needs to be highlighted.
20 comments
Copy link for RSS feed for comments on this post
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Tremendous post Greg. I’ve tried to make many of the same points in arguments with war/bush supporters, but never all at once and in such an articulate package. Nice job.
Comment by Mr Furious — August 18, 2004 @ 12:42 pm
nice job indeed, but I feel you are preaching to the congregation here – Amen. Bush really is ‘miserable failure’ as others have called him, and Iraq is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to his mistakes. What really needs to happen is Powell coming out and attacking Rummy and Bushie about their failure to abide by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force. He must be disgusted that he’s being dragged through the mud along with the rank and file soldiers dying over there for this crap, but he’ll be a loyal lapdog to the end.
Comment by mbf1978 — August 18, 2004 @ 1:25 pm
ummm, no. differences as kerry outlines them (less us troops, more international troops, more overall troops, etc) are not really substantial differences at all as defined, not by the bush administration or cable news pundints, but, rather by any rational human being who knows that to vote for the resolution was a mistake, to go in was a mistake, and to continue our presance there is a goddamn mistake.
let’s unite? fine. that doesnt mean i have to deny the obvious. let me ask you, at what point after a kerry victory in november will it be safe for all who want us out to start raising our voices again? something tells me i’ll be zipping by here and atrios and the rest in a year as najaf’s mosque is still under attack, us casualties are around 1,800, sadr city still has steph running through their water and electricity will solidly be on in at least 15% of that country, these blogs will be defending kerry, towing his line, and telling us we have to unite or else in three years we’ll have gulianni.
Comment by josh — August 18, 2004 @ 3:25 pm
Everybody wants to bring as many of our troops home as possible and internationalize the effort there. That should be a given. The difference that you’re deliberately overlooking is the fact that Bush’s actions over the last two years have completely undermined that stated goal.
Not to mention the fact that this was a post about the lead up to and execution of the war, not about the short- and long-term plans for its future. The reason Kerry’s and Bush’s plans are so similar on the surface is because Bush has been slowly taking pages from the mainstream Democrat playbook for the past year. For example, Democratic pressure shamed Bush into crawling back to the U.N. last year, but that doesn’t suddenly mean their positions were equal.
Just because I take offense to what I see as mischaracterizations of John Kerry’s position on the war doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to your own opinion. If you think John Kerry’s position is the exact same as Bush’s, then feel free to scream from the rafters, but I urge you to look beyond Kerry’s swing-state stump speech and the latest revision of Bush’s ramblings before making up your mind.
To be fair, this is Bush’s war and it’s a fucking quagmire. While I think Kerry will do a better job, I know it ain’t gonna get fixed overnight. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but if he does something stupid like refuse to open up contracts to non-coalition countries or something, I assure you I’ll be critical.
And so you don’t think I’m a total Kerry apologist, here’s a question : Why are the best articulations of Kerry’s position found in non-campaign blogs? Why does the blogosphere do a better job of refuting Republican propaganda than Kerry’s surrogates on TV? I like Kerry, but he’s learned nothing from the Dean campaign.
Comment by greg — August 18, 2004 @ 4:10 pm
You really ought to be talking about Kerry’s totally kick-ass Health Care proposal, which is centrests but brillian and effective, and which has the added bonus of revoking the tax cuts on those over-$200,000 folks. Seriously, if he would work harder on developing soundbites for his health care stuff he would clean up.
Comment by JOe — August 21, 2004 @ 10:08 am
“Did the United States have to go to war before the weapons inspectors had finished their job? Did it have to junk the U.N. process?”
You mean the inspectors that were not allowed to do there job except when Saddam would let them? The inspectors that were told where and what they could inspect? Are you talking about the same U.N. process that would not allow the US to finish Saddam in 91?
The U.N. is a joke. The world is safer without Saddam in Iraq. When the Marines drag Osama ass out of the sand in a few weeks, this election is over!
4 MORE 4 W
Comment by Jonathan — August 21, 2004 @ 11:59 pm
First of all Greg, Bush is the best president we’ve had for quit a while. What Bush did by going into war was courageous and shows that he wants to truly defend this country. It shows that those who don’t support going to war are in fact the chicken shits. Kerry likes to kiss up to other countries and have other countries help us. He believes that helps him get out of situation. We do not need others say so, we are a republic and a free country. We intend to stay free. We cannot keep our country free from harm and a safe proud place to live, if we don’t defend it. But we instead run from it like the chicken shits the democrats are. We have to stand proud to be in America. Those who don’t think we should defend our country and it’s people are those who shouldn’t have the freedom that we possess in this country, and that take it for granted. You think the people that are a threat to us are the ones in other countries. But it’s not just them, it’s also those in this country that run and hide that are going to eventually cost us our freedom.
Comment by Ashlee — August 24, 2004 @ 6:14 pm
Great Post, Ashlee. Satire this brilliant should be highlighted in a seperate post, Greg. I haven’t grinned so big in quite a while.
“it’s also those in this country that run and hide that are going to eventually cost us our freedom.” Classic!
Comment by Joe — August 25, 2004 @ 2:24 pm
Ashlee is the typical blinder-clad Republican who only knows how to recycle what info she’s been fed, although that post was certainly good for a laugh or three! I suggest we give her the old “your entitled to your party’s consensus opinion” pat-on-the-head and resume talking about substantive issues.
Comment by Ryan — September 2, 2004 @ 8:58 am
So Bush screwed up in Iraq? What do you base such opinion on? That people have died in a war? Hey, no surprise there. In case you hadn’t heard, that’s what happens in war. General Tommy Franks has outlined in detail in his book, American Soldier, what happened and why. Franks was correct on all counts. You really should read up on some military history and commentary from the participants before you make such unsupportably wrong pronouncements.
Comment by Frank — September 3, 2004 @ 10:40 pm
Go Bush!!!!
Comment by bethann — October 4, 2004 @ 7:52 am
i second Ashlee and Frank. You sound just like Kerry. You have opinions with nothing to base them on. If you’re going to state your opinion as a fact then please support it.
Comment by OMG ARE YOU ON CRACK — October 8, 2004 @ 10:52 am
You democrats are ridiculusly stupid. I can’t believe how uncomprehensively retarded you all are. I am now dumber for having heard your plea.
Go crawl in a hole and stay away from the rest of society.
Thank you.
Comment by democrats suck — October 26, 2004 @ 12:24 pm
bush is the trash…kerry is the perfume
Comment by jojo — October 26, 2004 @ 2:13 pm
bush is the trash…kerry is the perfume
Comment by jojo — October 26, 2004 @ 2:13 pm
I am so sick of hearing about how we will vote based on the war. Don’t you people know that if you look back in history we go to war every 10 years and that’s a fact.I also wonder if you people would have the same opinion if Clinton was president and sent our troops to war. War is a terrible thing but we have so many other issues like same sex marriages, and the future of our childrens schools, and our faith in God. We need to base our votes on “WHAT BENEFITS CAN THE PRESIDENT PROVIDE FOR ME”. I came on this site looking for help on who to vote for but i guess that won’t be happening.Good Luck and God Bless Us All!!!!!
Comment by Kay — October 27, 2004 @ 7:26 pm
Repubicans say that the world is safer without Saddam. Here’s the fact. Saddam was a secular dictator that was not a strong supporter of Islam. Saddam downplayed religon in his country in order to secure his power. Yes he was a ruthless man. However, The UN sanctions had rendered him basicaly harmeless due to a decade of sanctions.
Now with the upcoming elections in Iran the Sheite majority will elect a pro Islamic figure to occupy power. The elected President will no doubt be influenced and allied with neighboring IRAN.
Hatred for America will boil over in a radical muslim environment that did not exist before Bush created it. It is already happening, we are already becoming desensitized by the amount of violence against our troops and Iraqis. It will continue to fester and grow
The fools who think America by right just Kicks Ass are going to be the ones who bring this country down. We have killed over 100,000 Iraqis ,mostly women and children. They will seek revenge and Iraq will be a hot bed for terroism that it never was before. This will be historicly worse than Vietnam. Of course we could leave our troops there for 40 years and spend trillions of dollars to try and fight this. That would do wonders for our economy.
Comment by Dirk — October 29, 2004 @ 8:43 am
Go Bush!!! It was think it was right to go to war intead of waiting for another attack. Kerry said, “More troops died in july than in June, more in august than in july, more in sept. than in august.” Guess wat its there jobs that wat they wanted to do. Be a Soldier.
Comment by NICK — October 31, 2004 @ 8:04 am
Why will Kerry be able to hold a summit with our reluctant allies? Because he will bring hope to the table instead of fear. Because he will approach other countries and other cultures based upn the proposition that the United States is a part of the world, not a part from the world.
Hitler lost WWII by splitting his forces to attack the Soviet Union. Bush is losing the war on terrorism because he split our forces to attack Iraq.
The war is not yet lost, but we need to remember that most of the muslim population in the world deserves our understanding, our respect and our compassion and that we deserve theirs.
Comment by kamachanda — October 31, 2004 @ 9:20 am
I used to be a democrat, but recently switched to the Republican party after finding a couple of sites like this one. It’s really scary that people’s thought processes and opinions could be so out of touch with reality, and so far off the track of the way most Americans think and believe.
Ashlee, Frank, Jonathan–you are all correct. Don’t let these clowns intimidate you for your correct way of thinking. Those that consider you to be politically incorrect are just associating the the wrong politicians. Your values and opinions are shared by most of your American peers.
This forum is simply a place for a minority to find refuge among others that share their twisted anti-USA views.
Once you get numb to how frightening their way of thinking is, it’s humorous to read the things they post here. And, it helps strategize in the battle against their kind.
Comment by Democrat-4-America — October 31, 2004 @ 9:36 am