8/01/2004 04:02:31 PM|||Nathan Moore|||

Seems that many in the blogosphere have taken umbrage with Kerry's repudiation of the Bush Doctrine's requirement of selective preemptive strikes.

If it's been explained once, it's been explained a thousand times - nowadays war is not always conventional. There will be no marches on Washington - only Ryder trucks parked on Constitution Avenue with God knows what surprises waiting to detonate. Knowing the risks as Kerry certainly does, if we are to believe he garnered anything worthwhile from his Cold Warrior experience, and refusing to intervene anywhere preemptively is the basic tenet of a postmortem philosophy of modern nation-state survival. If that's our tactic, we're dead on our feet. Action only after a nuclear strike or a biological attack is a clear indicator of insanity, and holding true to that tact is a sure sign of unfitness to lead this country.

John Kerry's inability to comprehend this is alarming. Preemptive strikes are not a sign of a man who "wants to go to war", contrary to the most hackneyed Democratic argument spouted ad nauseum at the DNC. They are instead a sign of a man comfortable with reality as it presents itself, who understands that only decisive action save lives. We have no time for a nuanced foreign policy as viewed through a gray hued lense. The luxury of negligence so prevalent in the security policies of this nation in the 1990s created the conditions that made 9/11 possible. John Kerry wants to return to this time - he wants a return to 9/10.

Kerry makes fun of the administration's lack of understanding of science. He in fact ended his speech on this point. Someone needs to tell John Kerry to get a grip - that time travel is not possible, and his senate voting record does matter. National security is not a game to the Republican Party, but it is to the Democrats. I pray that the opposition party does not keep this a secret, and that the Bush campaign reveals this stark and vital difference at every opportunity.

|||109139499169784294|||Kerry on National Defense