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| Kerry’s
Unwavering Arrogance |
By Frank Salvato
September
27, 2004
- It isn’t hard to see, or hear. All one has to do is
listen to John Kerry for a bit. His every word drips of it. It emanates from
his every action. John Kerry is arrogant. This has never been more obvious
than in his recent remarks about Iraq in the face of Iraqi Prime Minister
Ayad Allawi’s speech to a joint session of Congress. John Kerry essentially
said that the prime minister didn’t know what he was talking about and that
he, John Kerry, did.
We’ve heard about Kerry’s legendary elitism. We’ve heard the stories of him
bucking lines in small town Massachusetts, chastising those he usurped with
a flippant, "Don’t you know who I am?” We’ve read accounts of him demeaning
Secret Service agents for his lack of balance on his snowboard – "I don’t
fall down. That son-of-a-bitch knocked me over.” It’s clear that he believes
he is above the everyman. Better than the everyman. Superior to the
everyman. He is an elitist. He is a narcissist.
All of this pales in comparison to the statements he made directly after the
speech to Congress by Prime Minister Allawi.
Mr. Allawi spoke to the American people, via their elected representatives,
to affirm and confirm a few things. He wanted, first and foremost, to thank
the American people for helping to liberate them from the tyrannical regime
of Saddam Hussein. He thanked us for freeing the Iraqi people from a regime
that the United Nations – that bastion of principle – allowed to remain in
power regardless of the mass graves it produced and the truly illegal wars
it waged. His was sincere and everyone who was in the House chamber felt it,
accepted it and validated it.
Mr. Allawi then spoke of the commitment that he and his fellow Iraqis have
made to bring democracy and a permanent freedom to his country, showcasing
the incredible journey that the Iraqi people have taken in so short a time.
He described in detail some of the horrors of Hussein’s regime including his
own brush with brutality and death at the hands of axe-wielding thugs sent
to silence the then exiled patriot courtesy of Saddam Hussein himself.
Allawi conveyed that it is precisely because of this past, this history of
cruelty, that the Iraqi people hunger for democracy and liberty. Again no
one in the chamber doubted the sincerity of Mr. Allawi’s words.
But perhaps the most important element of Mr. Allawi’s speech to the
American people was his contention that while our media reports the dire
situations in just three regions within his country, the overwhelming
majority of Iraqis are thankful for what the Coalition Forces have done and
continue to do. He stood before our representatives and told us, straight
from Baghdad, that the situation with regard to the terrorist insurgency is
not as horrifying as our media is portraying it to be, that the peaceful
regions outnumber the hostile regions 15 to 3, and, albeit little by little,
that the war against terrorism in his country is being won. Given the
exploits of CBS News in recent days it isn’t completely out of the question
that Mr. Allawi is correct when he asserts that the media is over-blowing
the situation, sensationalizing the actualities and politicizing the events
in a few regions to give the illusion that the unrest is nationwide.
So, the question is this, who are we going to believe?
Are we going to believe a man who lives in Baghdad, whose job it is to
nurture democracy in a newly freed nation, a man who lives and breathes
every element of the Iraqi society, who witnesses firsthand the successes
and the setbacks on a day-to-day basis? Or are we going to believe John
Kerry and his disingenuous spin-doctors, people who have taken to constant
repetition of talking points and non-truths in hopes of capitalizing on
propaganda tactics from WWII? I don’t know about you but I have to believe
someone who is dedicated to a free and peaceful Iraq over someone who is
continuously preaching doom while proposing to handover reconstruction
responsibilities to the very international organization who is responsible
for allowing Saddam Hussein to remain in power while hundreds of thousands –
if not millions – died at his hands.
John Kerry’s assertion that he knows better what’s happening in Iraq than
Iraq’s own prime minister is the pinnacle of arrogance. He is an elitist. He
is a narcissist. And if this is the way he intends to "court” the
international community, if this is his diplomatic style, he would be a
miserable failure as President of the United States.
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