My A-#1 main complaint about both Mssrs. Bush and Kerry on the War on Terror is that both have increasingly expressed views that the war is unwinnable:
When asked “Can we win?” the war on terror, Bush said, “I don’t think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that the — those who use terror as a tool are — less acceptable in parts of the world.”
Hat tip: Talking Points Memo
And that was Mr. Bush. That’s too nuanced for me. But it’s very likely to be true. How can you win if you’re willing to fight to a draw?
I never voted for Ronald Reagan. He was just too bellicose for me. But he changed the world by not accepting that a victory in the Cold War could be won rather than passed on as a legacy to his successors as had been done for forty years.
Forty years of War on Terror will almost inevitably result in millions or tens of millions of American civilian dead. That’s simply unacceptable. Have neither Kerry nor Bush learned anything from Reagan?
Near as I can tell from reading the transcripts posted, Bush, at least, simply said it wasn’t going to end with a surrender ceremony the way WW11 did. Nothing he said implied the war would never end.