Well, another one of those nuisance beheadings just took place.

Posted by: Darleen at October 11, 2004 01:47 PM

Before we call it a nuisance, should we also look at the benefits?

After all, think of how much less we’ll all be worrying about dandruff.

I applaud John Kerry’s vision of a world where terrorists, hookers and bookies are held in the same regard.

Posted by: TL at October 11, 2004 02:05 PM

“There will not be a treaty signed aboard the battleship Missouri, but we can break [terrorism’s] back so that it is only a horrible nuisance and not a paralyzing influence on our societies.”

— Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser under George H.W. Bush

Posted by: Lonewacko at October 11, 2004 02:22 PM

that was said how many years ago? when ppl like osama were not even known and that is revelant now because?

Posted by: navyvetagainstkerry at October 11, 2004 02:32 PM

1972. That was the last time they were actually considered a nuisance. It was the 72 Olympics when Palestinian terrorists killed the Israeli athletes in Munich to get the media exposure they craved. It was at that point they burst into the global consiousness. Prior to that, pretty much all their efforts were localized and could be safely ignored by folks on this side of the ocean.

So again, Kerry is stuck in the world of the 70s. He still exists there in his own mind. Would I like to return to those days? You bet. I was young and strong and full of piss and vinegar. That would be wonderful, but I’m too much of a realist. The world is not going to allow us to bury of heads in the sand and pretend it’ll all just go away.

Posted by: old_timer at October 11, 2004 03:48 PM

Of course, that is NOT relevant now. But it sure is fun to watch Kerry begin the three week destruction. America will rise up and not support a liberal who pretends to be something other than his true self. Although, i’m not so sure this frick has an inner core or guiding influence. He is so confused that all he can do is smile and look like Lerch….and reach out to have a nasty kiss with cousin IT! Libs hold onto the ONE poll (Zogby..who originally predicted Kerry would win..so much for his poll)….it is the outlier since a half dozen other polls have Bush in the lead. It doesn’t matter much, as long as America wakes up to the pig in a poke the dems have put forward.

Posted by: dickmr at October 11, 2004 03:48 PM

Love it how the left tries to equivocate W. and H.W.

“Eureka! There’s a direct correlation between sun spots and a rise in the stock market!” states the wacko.

Posted by: jackhammer at October 11, 2004 03:59 PM

that was said how many years ago?

I’m sure most people have followed the link, but for those who didn’t Scowcroft said that one year after 9/11.

Love it how the left

Not everyone who thinks GWB is a bad choice is on the left.

Posted by: Lonewacko at October 11, 2004 04:56 PM

Lonewacko,

That kinda proves the point, rather than refuting it. Not even Scowcroft, who is very much in the September 10 “realpolitic” camp doesn’t go so far as to equate terrorism with gambling and prostitution.

Kerry keeps talking out of both sides of his mouth on both terrorism and Iraq, while accusing Bush of being a liar and waging an illegitimate war. The man has no credibility on the issue of national security, despite being a decorated veteran.

Posted by: TL at October 11, 2004 04:58 PM

Kerry deliberately chose the analogy to prostitution and gambling rather than to the ideology of Nazism/fascism. The later is exactly what we face; a poisonous totalitarian ideology — Islamism. Gambling has no ideology that seeks to subvert the society in which it exists. Neither does prostitution.

Nazism/fascism still exist today, as small pockets of weirdnicks. Some places of the world outlaw them, some places (like here) monitor them. Law enforcement at state and federal levels keep extensive watch on Aryan Brotherhood, Nazi Lowriders, ‘Christian’ Identity Movement et al.

But these small criminal, psychotic movements are marginalized because the mainstream and very popular ideology was decisively defeated through force in WWII and post WWII occupation.

Kerry could have made this analogy, but tellingly he did not. He dismissed terrorism as to be likened to non-ideological criminal enterprises..even enterprises which rarely threaten peoples lives. And in light of some of his other comments in that article of sucking up to Europe and the “Islamic world” it is clear why he has steered clear of coming to realistic grasp of what Western Civilization is facing.

John Neville Kerry’s plan is “Peace through Nuanced Nuisance”

My children and grandchildren can ill-afford a Kerry Presidency.

Posted by: Darleen at October 11, 2004 05:54 PM

“My children and grandchildren can ill-afford a Kerry Presidency.”

And MY child and grandchildren can definitely another four years of a Bush presidency. With his first four years littered with the debris of unilateral action in Iraq and lack of cooperation on a host of global problems, it’s hard to see how a second Bush term could be more destructive. I bet he’d find a way. The world that Kerry sees and the course of action he envisions, as described in the New York Times Magazine piece, would improve America’s standing in the world dramatically. And it would, as he says, return us to the days of Truman, Kennedy, and Clinton when America was seen as a beacon of hope, not an object of derision.

Posted by: maniakes at October 11, 2004 09:58 PM

unilateral, adj. : 1. Performed or undertaken by or on the part of one side; made, enjoyed, shared in, felt, etc., by only one person or party.

2. Military action taken by the United States with allies including Australia, Poland, and the United Kingdom but not including France.

Posted by: Gabriel Hanna at October 11, 2004 10:03 PM

From the CIA World Factbook:

Nation Military expenditures

France — $45 billion
Poland — $3.5 billion
Australia — $14 billion
United Kingdom — $43 billion

What was it France was going to contribute again?

France who won’t even contribute forces to NATO?

Posted by: Gabriel Hanna at October 11, 2004 10:08 PM

Isn’t this the question ……
“what it would take for Americans to feel safe again:”
I maybe am the only person that read the question but it seems to me this is the question
“what it would take for Americans to feel safe again:”
What was not asked was what would you do to make Americans safe again. That is a tad different in my humble understanding.

Posted by: colddog at October 11, 2004 10:12 PM

This carefully crafted remark from the Kerry campaign reveals that in the inner circle they believe that 9/11 was a “crime”, not an act of war.

Posted by: Hulegu Khan at October 12, 2004 12:15 AM

Reading Kerry’s plans about what he will do when he
is sworn in as the next President - first make a speech to the UN, then start traveling around the world to commiserate with heads of state, yadah, yadah, makes me think this man is even more dangerous than I had concluded prior to reading this NYTimes piece!
Kerry must really have a deep seated messianic complex to think that the presence of his company is
the golden balm, th magic touch that will bring peace to this world.

Only hope that Victor David Hanson will take on the
NYTimes article with the same brilliant vigor that he used to define Kerry’s “answers as nauseaum” in the
last debate…

victorhanson.com/

October 9, 2004
The Friday Night Fight
“I Have A Plan”—on and on and on…

Hanson is my life line to sanity the longer this election campaign goes on.

Posted by: show me Sam at October 12, 2004 01:07 AM

I heard a quote yesterday maniakes that speaks directly to your “unilateral” nonsense:

“Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion” Stormin’ Norman Schwartzkopf (I believe).

So nice try on that old news. People are just too nuanced to buy this anymore. Got anyother myths you wanna try out on us?

Posted by: skip at October 12, 2004 09:23 AM

I should expect that Americans will be delighted to have a dramatically improved standing in the world,the downside wil of course the bastards that are killing you now will still be doing it.
Zut Alors,zees Americans zey die so well, zey deserve an extra shrug of ze shoulders do zey not?
Standing in the world, is the third most useless thing,fill in the other two yourselves.

Posted by: PeterUK at October 12, 2004 03:26 PM

” . . . you know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.”

Jed Babbin, on Hardball, January 30, 2003.

Not Stormin’ Norman.

Jed Babbin is a frequent contributor to National Review and National Review Online.

www.nationalreview.com

Posted by: Gabriel Hanna at October 12, 2004 11:26 PM