Old Guy,

Kerry has a decent plan to end the fisaco in Iraq. The first is to train an Iraqi defense force outside of Iraq and elicit the help of the allies that Bush has alienated. His committment to this goal is as intense as anything Bush has proposed. Bush has made a pretense of a "willing coalition" which in fact has not taken on the responsibility that Bush claims they have. Kerry is intelligent enough to develop a true coalition who accept this responsibility and would ask the UN for help. It's in the best interest of a rational world to stabilize Iraq by taking the American corporate interests out of Iraq and replacing them with a more impartial group. Kerry would reunite the world community by behaving in a civil and sensitive manner. Cheney is wrong. We do need sensitive as well as strong leadership and the two are not mutually exclusive.

We need to reduce our dependency on oil. Kerry has made this clear. Alternative energy sources must be explored.

Kerry has not alienated allies at all. Alawi is not an ally buy employed by Bush who wants the election to go his way in Iraq at any cost as he does in the US.

A failed policy is costing American lives, not anyone's critique of the war. Not all soldiers believe they should be there and in the future, we will see more migrations of them to Canada and other places.


The idea that Democrats don't care about our troops is ludicrous.

You say, "If the American people would show a unified commitment to the war against terrorism the violence would abate sooner."

This is not necessarilly true. Violence brings about more violence. The Iraqi people are becoming unified in their repudiation of American forces. The only unified commitment that should be made is to understand the source of terrorism, define it better, and create the conditions that eradicate it. These are not just military. It requires judgement, education, respect for our country, and understanding, something that Bush has not shown during his tenure. He has been reckless in his foreign policy and has actually helped Al Quaeda by so doing.


The biggest defense of Kerry is that he is a diplomat and not a hot-headed impulsive commander-in-chief. The answer to terrorism ultimately is world diplomacy not a scorched-earth policy.

The results of this policy would be many countries of the world coming on board to help the US in it's fair and even-handed approach to solving the problem of "terror". Respect for the US would go up. Right now, it's the lowest it's ever been throughout the world. When America can act as a leader and not a military dictatorship, the world will recognize the value of our democracy.

Frank