IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
In the run-up to the election on Tuesday there’s a lot of hyperventilating going on on both sides. Does it remind you of the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as it does me?
I’m here to tell you it doesn’t really matter. Will there be differences if Kerry is elected as opposed to Bush being re-elected? Of course. But the Republic will go on and endure and thrive.
It’s ironic that the best statements of this have been by an Iraqi and and a Kuwaiti in an Arabic forum from the BBC, brought to us by Omar of Iraq the Model. I’ll just give you their words without any further commentary:
“There won’t be a big difference; the American policy has constants and fixed principles and there are institutions that decide America’s interests not a group of people (administration) who do whatever they want. It’s the congress who plays the major role in the decision making process.
America is staying in Iraq whether it was a democratic or a republican man in the white house, besides, we all know that the law of the liberation of Iraq was released in Clinton’s days back in 1998. The American interests in Iraq and in the region demand a permanent existence for American forces to protect these interests and also to help and support the Iraqi government which is still weak and depends much on the American forces in managing the security situation in Iraq.We may see only a reduction in the number of troops and this depends on how the security is going to improve in Iraq and on the Iraqi government gaining more control over the country and only then, the troops may be reduced but a total withdrawal is impossible.
The American vision about Iraq is that Iraq is the no.1 ally and the most important country for American interests in the region and consequently the American presence will remain strong and active”
Mohammed Al Khafaji-Babylon/Iraq.
“John Kerry cannot change the policies of the US in Iraq because the American policy (unlike the countries of the ME) is not monopolized by individuals. And no matter how high the price America is going to pay in Iraq, it will be for the best of the American people.”
Khalid Abdullah-Kuwait.
You make a very, very good point. And yet there is a flip side. For if George Bush loses, it will I think send a signal to all future American Presidents: America will not tolerate even so much as 1,000 dead on a battlefield. We will only tolerate fast conflicts where we win overwhelmingly and leave. Iraq may be the last true liberation we ever attempt.
Domestically, we will also have given a victory to such terrible people as Michael Moore and George Soros and the folks at MoveOn.org, and will have proven that poisonous and divisive politics during wartime is a way to win elections.
The Republic will survive if Kerry is elected, and I am optimistic about the nation’s future. But the changes in our foreign policy and our politics will be dramatic. I think it important that the nasty, irrational, hard left faction of our politics be defeated. This is why it matters to me that Bush wins.
As a counter point, a Bush victory tomorrow will signal a resignation by the American people that it doesn’t matter whether we are right or wrong about taking an action, as long as our leaders believe we are correct. We will finally put away any pretense of freedom and democracy and begin building empires in earnest.
Domestically, we will have given a victory to such terrible people as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and the “Swift Vets” and will have proven that poisonous and divisive politics during wartime is a way to win elections.
The Republic will survive, in name at least for a while, if Bush is elected, but I am not optimistic about the nation’s future. The changes to our foreign policies and our politics have already been dramatic. I think it is important that the casty, irrational, hard right faction of our politics be defeated. This is why it matters to me that Kerry wins.
I’m not saying that there won’t be consequences. But we have processes in this country that we use to modify policies. And I don’t mean the courts or taking to the streets in protest. IMO both of those are fundamentally undemocratic approaches, the former elitist and the latter mobocracy.
I mean the legislative process. The power of the President is very restricted in this country so even if a President errs, the Congress has the power to correct the error.
> America will not tolerate even so much as 1,000 dead on a battlefield.
Whatever the election results say about the electors’ “tolerance,” the fact that it was so close shows that, yes, they are uneasy about sacrificing so many lives and so much treasure on an enterprise of such questionable value to U.S. security. Particularly when the stated reasons for entering into have been shown to be mistaken.
> Iraq may be the last true liberation we ever attempt.
If that is what Iraq has been then I certainly hope so. Regardless, this Administration has had its fingers burned there so I do not see it entering into any similar foreign military adventures in the next four years.
> The Republic will survive if Kerry is elected, . . .
It’s survived far worse.
> . . . and I am optimistic about the nation’s future. But the changes in our foreign policy and our politics will be dramatic.
Politics, perhaps. Foreign policy, no. What would a Kerry Administration have changed about the situation the U.S. finds itself in in Iraq? Nothing. There would still have been elections in January, the U.S. would still face the challenge of supporting whatever government emerged from the forces arrayed against it, and at some point our military involvement there would be drawn back, perhaps sooner rather than later.