John Kerry is beating his gums in front of an audience right now, and I saw a banner roll across the TV screen that quotes him as saying, “Our credibility in the world is plummeting.”
Interesting.
For years, governments around the world have been uneasy in making commitments with the US because we have a tendency to change direction with new Administrations. In other words, our credibility is often suspect. For two years now, people who opposed our invasion of Iraq, for whatever reason, have tried to paint Dubya as a liar and cheat, and the lowest form of humanity. That has happened both here and abroad. I would say that any loss of credibility is due to their constant harping rather than any fact.
Yet every leader in every nation of the world now actually views US policy as much more credible than before 9/11. Credibility comes from doing what you say you will do. People may not like what Dubya has done, but you can’t make an honest assessment and say he isn’t following his stated policy in regards to foreign policy.
We as a nation, not just George W. Bush, have decided we need to eliminate the supporters of Islamicists or make them crawl back into a hole. They know this. Our credibility will be diminished only if we take a more nuanced approach, and return to the 9/10 mentality of legal action, and warrants for the arrest of people like bin Laden.
Credibility means commitment. How committed are we?
Best damned post of the day.
Comment by AH — September 20, 2004 @ 2:50 pm