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Wednesday, August 18, 2004

But of course

I suggested yesterday that John Kerry would probably join the Washington Post and NY Times in attacking Bush's meaningless proposal to withdraw troops from Europe and Asia from the right, and it looks like I was right.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Wednesday criticized President Bush's proposal to recall up to 70,000 foreign troops as a hastily announced plan that raises more doubts about U.S. intentions and commitments than it answers.
...
Kerry argued that Bush's policy would dangerously reduce forces at a time when the nation is fighting the al-Qaida terrorist network in 60 countries across the globe.

Kerry said the redeployment would undermine relations with U.S. allies needed to help fight in Iraq and in the war on terror. It also would endanger national security as the United States is working to deter North Korea's nuclear program, he said.

"Why are we unilaterally withdrawing 12,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula at the very time we are negotiating with North Korea -- a country that really has nuclear weapons?" he said.
Why isn't Sweden shaking in their parkas over a potential nuclear attack from North Korea? Because there aren't tens of thousands of Swedish troops just waiting to invade North Korea at the slightest provocation. And why would one of the poorest countries in the world, North Korea, be spending billions on nuclear weapons? Because there are tens of thousands of US troops just waiting to invade North Korea at any provocation, real or imagined.

Bush and Rove are doing an admirable job of forcing Kerry to admit that he's just as much an imperialistic, militaristic nut job as they are. Certainly Iran and North Korea can read the writing on the wall--they can't rely on our election to protect them from invasion. Only nuclear weapons offer any promise in that regard, noting that Pakistan, heavily involved in terrorism but having nukes, was not invaded, while Iraq, not seriously involved in terrorism but lacking nukes, was. And both leading presidential candidates say they would have invaded Iraq even knowing they had no weapons. The lesson to Iran and North Korea couldn't be clearer--get nukes or die.