THE GOOD OLD '70s:

Kerry outlines foreign policy (Brian Knowlton, May 28, 2004, International Herald Tribune)

Senator John Kerry, seeking to more clearly define his national security differences with President George W. Bush, said Thursday that members of the administration had "bullied when they should have persuaded" and "looked to force before exhausting diplomacy."

Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, called for an energetic new pursuit of diplomacy and foreign alliances, as in the years after World War II.

"There was a time, not so long ago," he said, "when the might of our alliances was a driving force in the survival and success of freedom."

"At stake is a vision of an America truly stronger and truly respected in the world," he said in Seattle.

Hard to believe any intelligent adult who lived through them could long for a return to the years of the Cold War--a world permanently divided, an American nation divided, huge defense spending to no good end, constant involvement in dirty wars, loathing and ridicule from the rest of the world, retarded economic growth, etc., etc., etc. But that may well be what we get if we fail to hasten the transformation of the Middle East as we so despicably failed to displace communism at the end of WWII. We'll still win in the long run but at unnecessary cost to them and to us. On the other hand, that's the best oprtion for the statists of the left, who were bought off with bigger government all through the Cold War and reveled in the resulting breakdown of traditional society.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 28, 2004 10:56 AM