What is Kerry really going to do when he owns Iraq and can't sleep

[hansolsen]

Fellow bloggers: The poets say that "fools go where angels dare not tread", and lord knows many have gone before me and tried their hand at solving the Arab / Israeli dispute. I assert that they all have failed, leaving room for another try. I propose we try things that have not been tried before, bold, radical things that are in fact new. Why not?

So here are four ideas. Let me introduce them.

The first one is intended simply to buy time -- to avoid the dreaded escalation to the use of WMD.

The second is intended to spread one of the great institutions of democracy without demanding that countries implement democracy. The hope is that democracy will follow of its own accord.

The third is intended to restore some fundamental fairness and equity to the situation on the ground in the middle east. This will do two things, IMO. It will put U.S. troops on the ground in Israel to help maintain the peace and enforce the original U.N. mandate establishing the state of Israel, and it will give Palestinians the best chance they have had to form a separate state they can be proud to call home.

The fourth is a call for universal sacrifice. It is time to tell the American people the truth -- there are immense costs associated with our policies in the world. We must step up to those costs now.

Are you ready? Here we go.

1. TWENTY FIRST CENTURY MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION:

George Bush has said this is not a war on Islam. He might have better said this is not a war on Islam yet. Maybe John Kerry can say it for him. I urge him to announce the next Presidential Doctrine declaring that the use of weapons of mass destruction on American soil, if ever perpetrated by Arab fundamentalists, and if ever done in the name of Islam, will be met with war on Islam. What we need now is the twenty first century equivalent of "Mutually Assured Destruction." That policy during the Cold War, however grotesque in enunciation, had the sublime beauty of being effective on the ground. It concentrated the mind. We now need to concentrate the Arab mind.
Put this in effect by dispatching the Marines to deliver this Presidential doctrine to every city and village on the Arabian peninsula. Have them nail it to the door of every Mosque. Include the message that in the event of war, every Mosque and every Mullah will be declared an enemy command and control center, and dealt with as such.
Drop a billion leaflets on the Arabian peninsula announcing that if a weapon of mass destruction is deployed against America in the name of Islam, no man will stand in Mecca for a thousand years. Go on Arab television and say the same thing, and say it in a tone of voice so they know you mean it. And say it in such a way that you clearly mean no disrespect for Islam.

2. MAKE EVERY WORLDD JOURNALIST A u.s. CITIZEN

Announce another, and even more important Presidential Doctrine. Declare every journalist in the world to henceforth be a United States citizen. Extend automatic dual citizenship to every journalist in every nation on every continent. Declare your intention to defend freedom of the press as a universal human right. Declare it your intention to protect these new citizens of democracy with the full force and might of American military power. Stand up and say it so they know you mean it.
Make it our business to know how every journalist in the world is treated. Make the spread of democracy the highest national priority, higher, for example, than trade, and GDP. Explain this new fact of life to our friends in international business. Explain it in a tone of voice that convinces them we won't forget our new doctrines in the morning. Threaten to sink a few of their ships on the high seas just for emphasis if they demur. Tell the CIA to stay out of the business of killing leaders we don't like and picking new leaders of our choice. Let democracy work its magic. Support universal freedom of the press and most importantly, be open to the outcome.
Immediately cease and desist from any further financial and moral support for authoritarian regimes in that region, or any other region for that matter. Announce that if regime changes on the Arabian peninsula disrupt the flow of oil, we will infer that to be a breach of legal contract and will then take whatever oil we need at a fair price. Smile when you say that.

3. RELOCATE TROOPS FROM IRAQ TO ISRAEL, AND ENFORCE the ORIGINAL U.N. MANDATE

Declare a ten year moratorium and cooling off period for the Arab / Israeli dispute. We cannot allow this protracted religious argument to cost a million American lives for nothing. This is no time for four eyed geeks in Foggy Bottom to dither away to their heart's content. This is no time for dithering. This is no time for timid politicians to bow and scrape to the Israeli lobby. This is no time for bowing and scraping. This is a time for bold action.
Stop sending blood money to Israel and Egypt. Instead send the U.S. Army to reestablish and defend the pre 1967 borders. Send the Army Corps of Engineers to bulldoze the Israeli settlements level with the sand, every one of them. Tell Yasser Arafat that if there is one more suicide bomber we will pick up every Palestinian on the West Bank and relocate them to the caves in Afghanistan.
Declare Jerusalem to be an open city administered by the United Nations. Declare that it will remain an open city for the rest of this Millennium. If the Rabbis and the Mullahs and the Priests complain bitterly and wave their musty old books in your face, round them up en mass and drop them in the Mediterranean sea.

4. IMPLEMENT A UNIVERSAL DRAFT FOR MILITARY AND PEACE CORPS

Tell the American people the hard truth. Tell them that their safety and security is now not only dependent on the Marine Corps, but also on the Peace Corps. Make it our highest national priority to make friends with the world, and by that I mean the people of the world, not the regimes of the world and not the religious nut cases of the world. The weed of terrorism can only thrive in an unplowed field. We must plow every field, sow it thick with democracy, and pray that God rains freedom on the world. In freedom lies our safety.
In support of this goal, ask American families to make a great personal sacrifice. Institute a universal national draft. Require all young American citizens to give two years of their lives to national service. Send them throughout the world to every town, hamlet, and field. Set them to work outside under God's blue sky. Let them feel the sun and the rain on their face every day. And let them spread democracy and freedom every evening over dinner and conversation. You have a unique opportunity, Mr. Kerry, to ask this nation for sacrifice, sacrifice in support of a great goal. Do not squander that opportunity; do not be afraid to ask. Do not let the moment pass. If not this, what?

[kikiek]

1. My own hope is that our status and trust in the world is restored and

other countries will feel safe enough to slow down the new nuclear arms race that we have created. I suspect it won't stop completely. They will never completely trust us again. I am sure they see us as a country forcing everyone to disarm, and then attacking them when they have nothing to defend themselves with. And if they have oil they will continue to wish for our demise.

[hansolsen]

2. I do not share the goal of keeping other nations unarmed.

Our goal needs to be to help spread the institutions of democracy around the world, but not at the barrel of a gun. Free people, in free nations, governing themselves under a republic or representative democracy are very rarely dangers to their neighbors (unless they become the sole super power on earth)

So, for example, we can have profound differnces of opinion and foreign policy with the nation of France, but not lose any sleep over the fact that France is a nuclear armed nation.

Our old enemies Russia and China have nuclear weapons. So do India and Pakistan. About the only major block of nations now denied nuclear weapons are muslim nations on the Arabian penninula, i.e. nations aligned against Israel. This cannot last.

Any policy that tries to make it last is doomed to fail. The war in Iraq is a fool's errand.