Wednesday, September 10, 2003
About the debate last night, Dean’s position on Israel is right that the US needs to be an honest broker not cheerleader for illegal settlements. However, I can’t say that I thought his shoot from the hip style and ask questions later, wouldn’t start getting him in trouble soon.
Finally, Dean is getting into foreign policy with nuance and realizing how difficult it is to articulate a sound bite position that doesn’t box you in later. I’m still perplexed how he can argue the inspectors should have been more time to inspect, but would have voted no on the Congressional resolution that gave the President the threat of force to get the inspectors back into Iraq.
In the age of WMD, most of the American people believe the UN has the ability to authorize preemptive war against a tyrant who has misused such weapons in the past. This president rushed to war despite what he said about using the resolution to build an international coalition, but don’t blame Bush’s misuse on the actual resolution. If Dean doesn’t believe the international community has the authority to act preemptively under any circumstances, Karl Rove will eat him alive.
Finally, Dean is getting into foreign policy with nuance and realizing how difficult it is to articulate a sound bite position that doesn’t box you in later. I’m still perplexed how he can argue the inspectors should have been more time to inspect, but would have voted no on the Congressional resolution that gave the President the threat of force to get the inspectors back into Iraq.
In the age of WMD, most of the American people believe the UN has the ability to authorize preemptive war against a tyrant who has misused such weapons in the past. This president rushed to war despite what he said about using the resolution to build an international coalition, but don’t blame Bush’s misuse on the actual resolution. If Dean doesn’t believe the international community has the authority to act preemptively under any circumstances, Karl Rove will eat him alive.
# posted by AB @ 7:42 AM 
