...Oh, And While I'm At It...

I want to give you a quote pertinent to recent discussions of the Iraq war, with one single word changed. I will tell you, after making my point, which word it was, and why I changed it.



Here goes:

In fact, I fear that in the run-up to the upcoming election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election.



I have called for the administration to transfer sovereignty, and they must transfer it to the Iraqi people as quickly as circumstances permit. But it would be a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle to speed up the process simply to lay the groundwork for a politically expedient withdrawal of American troops. That could risk the hijacking of Iraq by terrorist groups and former Ba'athists. Security and political stability cannot be divorced. Security must come first, and that is why it is so imperative to succeed in building a genuine coalition on the ground in Iraq.

Now, would you like to guess which American political figure said this?



Any guesses?



I bet you're thinking it's a Republican Congressman, hotly debating the current situation, right?



Wrong.



This is a quote from Senator John Kerry, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations. The word I changed? Just before "election," the word "upcoming" was in reality "2004."



This is a speech he gave during his campaign leading up to the 2004 election.  It is an interesting speech indeed, considering that he has now reversed his stance on virtually every point he made in that speech, and used in it the SAME TERMS the Republicans are now using to describe HIS strategy.



I find his recent remarks that the use of the phrase "cut and run" is merely political grandstanding to be ironic to the point of utter absurdity.



Does anyone need any more evidence that our government is filled topful with waffling blowhards who follow the winds of public opinion to the exclusion of anything resembling an actual stand on an issue?