March 02, 2004

THE SANDALISTA SENATOR (via Reductio ad Absurdum):

Kerry's Dirty Diplomacy (George Neumayr, 3/2/2004, American Spectator)

To most sentient observers, Aristide is an obvious Marxist crook and thug. To John Kerry, he is "Father Aristide." That's what Kerry quaintly called the brutal strongman in a 1994 New York Times op-ed, even though Aristide had been sacked from the Salesian order several years earlier after the Vatican grew weary of his preaching in favor of Marxist violence.

In that 1994 op-ed, Kerry played the apologist for Aristide. "Father Aristide may not be perfect (what elected leader is?), but we have never discarded whole democracies because of an individual leader," Kerry wrote. "Moreover, he has already demonstrated his willingness to compromise, agreeing to share power with a broad-based coalition with safeguards for everyone's rights."

Here Kerry was trying to pass off a thug as a conciliatory priest. Aristide was a known inciter of "necklacing," the practice of throwing flaming tires around opponents' heads. He had compiled a voluminous record as an abuser of human rights. Kerry, nevertheless, had a weakness for the defrocked priest.

A dissenting Catholic himself, Kerry sympathized with Aristide's attempts to turn Catholicism into communism under the guise of "liberation theology." Which explains why Kerry even to this day whines about conservative criticism of Aristide's liberation theology. Last week Kerry accused the Bush administration of "a theological and ideological hatred" of Aristide. "It goes back to the liberation theology that he preached earlier in his career," Kerry said. "It's part of the right's attitude about Aristide."


No wonder Mr. Kerry doesn't mention Haiti policy on his website, having contributed to the disaster.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 2, 2004 11:56 AM
Comments

kerry doesn't even know what liberation theology is, so he damn sure better not be commenting on it. in fact, from now on, no gov't official or public personality should be allowed to wax intellectual about something they don't have a PhD in.

that should make for some interesting news broadcasts.

Posted by: a at March 2, 2004 12:25 PM

Saw a bit of Nightline last night. They kept trying over and over to portray Haiti as another Vietnam/quaqmire and that the US marines were not welcome. Unfortunately all the live shots showed the Haitians applauding the US and saying nice things. Watch the media push this meme (and that Kerry is right/Bush is wrong)until the election.

Posted by: AWW at March 2, 2004 12:57 PM

AWW --

Congratulations if you understand what Kerry is right about on Haiti. For the life of me, I am not sure anybody can explain it better than "Whatever Bush is doing I would do it better."

Posted by: MG at March 2, 2004 06:08 PM

Just as a follow up. This is what OpinionJournal has on Haiti/Kerry. Ted Koppel: What is Kerry right about?

"Speaking of conspiracy theories, Kerry already has one about Haiti, a country he discovered just last week. On NBC's "Today" show this morning, the Associated Press reports, Kerry "said he thought there ought to be some investigation of the claim that [deposed despot Jean-Bertrand] Aristide was forced out and escorted by U.S. troops."
Here's the Kerry quote: "I have a very close friend in Massachusetts who talked directly to people who have made that allegation. I don't know the truth of it. I really don't. But I think it needs to be explored and we need to know the truth of what happened."
This has become standard operating procedure for Democrats: put out some outlandish statement (President Bush had foreknowledge of Sept. 11, Bush was a "deserter"), then say you "don't know the truth of it" but it's "out there" and "we need to know" what happened. The Republican National Committee has two Web pages--here and here--chronicling Kerry's conspiracy-mongering, and of course former candidates like Howard Dean and Wesley Clark have been playing the same game.
When America was liberating Iraq, of course, Kerry opposed the action because "allies" like the French weren't on board. He now seems to oppose the liberation of Haiti from Aristide even though, as Agence France-Presse reports, "Aristide's departure 'was the result of perfect co-ordination' between Washington and Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said." You'd almost think Kerry likes dictators--or at least any dictator President Bush acts to depose"

Posted by: MG at March 2, 2004 06:23 PM

Liberation theology is the burning bag of poo on the front lawn of decent religion.

Posted by: Chris at March 2, 2004 06:42 PM

I had one brush with Liberation Theology back around 1980. My impression of it, summarized in a one-liner:

"The New Holy Trinity: Marx, Lenin, and Castro."

Posted by: Ken at March 2, 2004 07:15 PM

MG:

Of course we forced him out of power, but that's far different from his specific allegation that we kidnapped him and dragged him out of the country.

Posted by: oj at March 2, 2004 08:47 PM

Perhaps Kerry would sponsor Aristide, so he could then live at Beacon Hill and hobnob with the CBC.

Posted by: jim hamlen at March 2, 2004 09:41 PM

Even if the US did "kidnap" Aristide and force him to leave Haiti, what was Aristide's alternative ?

Really, just to be hacked to death by a mob.

What's he complaining about ?

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at March 2, 2004 10:12 PM

Hey, if it's true, that just brings Bush's total of thugs knocked out of power to three.

Posted by: Timothy at March 2, 2004 11:49 PM

"of course we forced him out of power"

OJ, you say "of course", could you explain the obviousness of this. Presumably, Aristide had thru stupidity or maliciousness set off a violent revolt in his country and the US was not willing to protect him. Is that why you say we "forced him out of power"? We would be forcing him out only if we (the US) instigated the violent revolt.

Posted by: h-man at March 3, 2004 07:11 AM

h-man:

The United States determines the legitimacy of every regime on Earth at this point. When we told him to go he was done. When the Marines showed up to escort him out it was over.

Posted by: oj at March 3, 2004 07:36 AM

OK OJ
Why don't we now tell Chirac to get the h*ll out.

Posted by: h-man at March 3, 2004 05:01 PM

Because we need his troops, so ours can go somewhere that matters.

Posted by: oj at March 3, 2004 05:28 PM
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