The sensitivity strategy
By By Zeke Calhoun / guest columnist
August 22, 2004
I breathed a sigh of relief when John Kerry finally showed what he was made of by promising to carry out a more sensitive war on terror. Most of us anti-war Democrats had been very uneasy with the pro-defense/strong America tone set by the Democratic National Convention and were afraid that Kerry had overplayed his hand in attempting to win over moderate swing voters.
Perhaps now that the carefully scripted infomercial is over, the Kerry/Edwards campaign will be able to refocus on the core Democratic issues that they completely avoided mentioning during the Democratic Convention. It's about time.
Forgive me for criticizing my own party, but I've been very upset that neither Kerry nor Edwards have touted their life-long support of abortion, gay rights and socialized medicine during this campaign. And they haven't said a word about the importance of appointing Supreme Court justices who will free us from the last vestiges of Judeo-Christian morality that permeated and polluted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
But their time is coming. Throughout their distinguished careers in the Senate, John Kerry and John Edwards have been more liberal than even our beloved Ted Kennedy, and I trust them to do the right thing after they're sworn in.If they must pretend to be moderates to get elected, then I'll hold my nose and support them anyway. We'll do whatever it takes to get that born-again Texan out of the Oval Office and restore it to the dignity it had under Bill Clinton.
Every so often, though, John Kerry thrills and energizes those of us in his base by showing us that he's still the anti-war protester that we all love and admire. Revealing his sensitivity strategy to win the war on terror was a stroke of genius.
Sure, John Kerry may be one of the greatest war heroes of American history, but deep down, he knows that the only way to defeat your enemies is to kill them with kindness.
You see, the root cause of terrorism isn't Islamic fundamentalism or hatred or disrespect for human life. The real cause of terrorism is low self-esteem caused by poverty, inadequate health care, and a feeling of helplessness in the face of global warming.
Bombing terrorist camps in Afghanistan, imprisoning Al-Qaeda members in Guantanamo Bay, and bringing democracy to Iraq does nothing to win the war on terror. As a matter of fact, killing terrorists, especially on their own soil, is probably the worst thing we could've done.
The rapid defeat of the Taliban and capture of their leaders was a horrendous blow to the self-esteem of Islamic fundamentalists everywhere. Pictures of Uday and Qusay dead and their father Saddam in U.S. custody only serve to strengthen the hatred of anti-American groups in the Middle East. And I don't even want to think about what will happen if we capture Osama bin Laden. Trust me, we will rue the day we won these last two wars.
Things will be much different under President Kerry. In the future, no one will ever accuse us of acting too strongly or unilaterally or couching foreign policy in simplistic terms of good and evil. Our troops would only be used as a last resort, only in defense of our homeland, and only with the full sanction and blessing of the United Nations.
President Kerry would send the Peace Corps instead of the Marine Corps to troubled lands and show terrorists that they don't need to fear American power and hegemony any longer. When America begins fighting global poverty instead of terrorism, I believe we will actually conquer both and prove that ultimately sensitivity is the greatest mark of strength.
Zeke Calhoun is columnist Craig Ziemba's extremely liberal cousin.
