Rebuting Kerry

Cliff May:

John Kerry has an op-ed in the NYT today, headlined “Two Deadlines and an Exit.” (Is that meant to be a play on “Two Weddings and a Funeral”?)

For what it’s worth here are some of his key points and some responses:

“As our generals have said, the war cannot be won militarily. It must be won politically.”
Some generals may have said that, but it’s wrong. It’s what is said by generals who love to train and parade and buy expensive weapons systems and then retire to cushy jobs at Lockheed. The fact is we have to win both militarily and politically.

We have to learn to fight and win a war against terrorist and insurgent groups. If we have a military that can’t win this kind of war, then Iraq will be only the first of many defeats--Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan will soon follow. What would prevent that?

If we have a military that can’t fight and win a war such as this, then we have a military that is close to useless, because this is what war is going to look like in the 21st century. We’re not going to have a chance to fight Rommel in the desert again. We’re not going to send tanks into Poland.

“Now we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on its own two feet.”
If we set a deadline, we’re essentially saying to al Qaeda and Saddam loyalists in Iraq: “Here’s when we’ll be out of your way. Plan on it.” Is that really a smart idea?

...
May repeats a point made here before. We have to defeat this type of warfare or we will be fighting it forever.

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