Quote:
Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
If you're pulling out speeches from seven years ago to suggest hypocrisy -- without considering both how the situations and circumstances may have changed over the course of seven years and how one's opinions are entitled to evolve . . .
Then you are adopting a sufficiently simple-minded mode of analysis that it should be easy enough to brush aside on the campaign trail.
I don't think you'll find a quote from John Kerry saying trhat the U.S. should never act on its own.
S_A_M
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I agree regarding evolution, but that raises the legitimate question or whether his views are again going to evolve, or whether they evolved for political reasons.
As to changed circumstances, I agree with this in principle, but I don't know how the circumstances in Iraq materially changed between 1997 and 2001, other than in a way that is adverse to Kerry.
On unilateral action, it is more than just the absence of such a quote. It is an express quote that the US should be prepared to act alone.
Look, while I disagree with his policies, I actually like John Kerry. He is a sober, smart, experienced politician and certainly fit to hold the presidency (he is the only one of the 9 that is, IMHO). But if you look at his record, he has tended to sway for political expediency. Dean has been pointing this out recently (e.g., how could Kerry vote against the war in 1991 when SH had invaded Kuwait, and for preemptive war in 2002). Kerry is doing his best to parse this out, but I think the simple answer is that it was for political purposes.
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