Good luck to Kerry

JUDGING from our consistent condemnation of George Bush and his illegal and disastrous pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, it should be obvious to all that we would be happy to see him voted out of office come next November. In our view, the world would be a much safer place without this divisive warmonger in the White House and, we feel sure, with a new President in residence, a fresh era of international amity, respect and cooperation would begin. Having taken in television coverage of the Democratic Convention in Boston earlier this week and having heard the acceptance speech of John Kerry, the party’s candidate in the coming presidential elections, we are now more convinced than ever of the need for such a change.

Kerry, in our view, is the kind of leader that America now urgently needs, not only because of his domestic policies geared essentially to helping the middle class as against the Republican’s concern for the rich, but also because of his determination to restore confidence and respect for the US government both at home and abroad. More than a month ago, we expressed some surprise over the extent of popular acclaim that Bush continues to enjoy inspite of his horrendous blunder in Iraq, but we should have realised how deeply the American society now is split between Democrats and Republicans and the overriding influence that ideology exercises between them. In light of  the Iraqi disaster, we believed that Bush should have done the decent thing and stepped down from office or at least not offered himself for reelection.

Or that the American people should be calling for an accounting from him for his unwarranted, unilateral, fraudulently-based and ideologically-motivated attack on Iraq, whose death toll among American soldiers, now close to 1,000 since the invasion, continues to mount on a daily basis. But if ethnicity determines the nature of political allegiance in some countries, in the US it is ideology that divides the population and there is really no way that the majority of Republicans will desert the party’s ideology to reject their leader, regardless of the mischief he creates at home and abroad. John Kerry, it appears to us, has the integrity and commitment to undo that mischief. But his victory over Bush is far from being a foregone conclusion. In his impressive acceptance speech, he launched a frontal attack on the President, promising to bring back “this nation’s time-honoured tradition: the United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to.”

The reference, of course, is to the fact that long before 9-11 the Bush administration had decided to topple Saddam Hussein and created a relentless impetus which may well have influenced the fraudulent intelligence used to justify it. “Saying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doen’t make it so,” Kerry told the Convention. “Saying we can fight a war on the cheap doesn’t make it so. And proclaiming mission accomplished certainly doesn’t make it so.”  The candidate, who has been honoured for his heroic action during the Vietnam war, added: “Before you go to battle, you have to be able to look a parent in the eye and truthfully say: ‘I tried everything possible to avoid sending your son or daughter into harm’s way.

But we had no choice. We had to protect the American people, fundamental American values, from a threat that was real and imminent’. So lesson one, that is the only justification for going to war.” In another direct hit on Bush, he said, “In these dangerous days, there is a right way and a wrong way to be strong. Strength is more than tough words. After decades of experience in national security, I know the reach of our power and I know the power of our ideals.” Kerry promises to make America once again a beacon to the world, “to be looked up to and not just feared.” We are swayed by his conviction and, in the interest of world stability and international cooperation, we wish him every success.