Kerry on allies and would-be allies

I absolutely love this post by Beldar on Kerry's comments during the debate regarding how he would woo new allies to join us. Specifically, Beldar eviscerates Kerry's statement that

If the president had shown the patience to go through another round of [United Nations] resolution [sic], to sit down with those leaders, say, "What do you need, what do you need now, how much more will it take to get you to join us?" we'd be in a stronger place today.

Beldar is an experienced trial lawyer and thus has been a party to many, many negotiations. As he puts it:

Oh, how I love to hear those exact words coming from my adversary across the bargaining table!

When I hear "How much more will it take?" and "What do you need?" coming from the mouth of my opponent, I know the case will settle on terms favorable to my client. My opponent might as well have placed a large, blinking neon sign behind him that reads: "I'm afraid to go to trial, and I'll do whatever it takes to avoid that risk."

Read the whole post.

So now we know how Kerry would secure the ever-elusive and, apparently, all-important participation of the French and the Germans: by offering them anything and everything under the sun. What about how he treats the allies we've already won?

By insulting and belittling them, of course. His description of our allies as the "trumped-up,
so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought, and the extorted" is beyond the pale. It's a grievous insult to the literally dozens of nations that support us, comprising the second-largest coalition ever assembled, taking a backseat only to the coalition that fought the first Gulf War, a war which I might add Senator Kerry voted against even though we did have the support of the United Nations Security Council. How dare Kerry belittle their support?

I also have a serious disagreement with Senator Kerry's oft-repeated complaint that the United States is incurring ninety percent of the casualties in Iraq, as though if our allies were taking more casualties that would somehow be a better situation. There's a good reason the United States is doing most of the work in Iraq: our military is absolutely unparalleled. American military spending is an order of magnitude greater than any other nation's with the exceptions of Russia and China, two countries which could not reasonably have been expected to join the coalition in the first place. We do the work because we're best equipped to do the work.

Suppose you're building a house. That's a lot of work to do. You'll have to mix and pour concrete for a foundation, cut two-by-fours to size and nail them together, put up insulation, siding, and drywall, run electrical, telephone, network, and plumbing lines, and thousands of other tasks. Your seven-year-old son wants to help. He's not capable of doing the vast majority of the tasks necessary to complete the house, but he offers to serve as your gofer, getting you nails and tools when you need them, occasionally bringing you a tasty beverage as you do your thirsty work.

You're still doing most -- nearly all -- of the work. Does that mean your son's contributions are negligible? Does that mean he's not a partner with you in building the house? No! He's doing all he can do, all he's capable of doing, and he's taking care of minor chores that would otherwise occupy your time. As importantly, he's supporting you. By his actions, he's indicating that he approves of building the house and he wants to help you complete it.

So, let's consider a Coalition member: the oft-forgotten Poland. For every penny Poland spends on its military, we spend a dollar. It'd be absolutely absurd to expect the Poles to carry as much weight as the United States, and God forbid they should incur sufficient casualties to bring them on par with the United States. But they're there, they're doing what they can, and they do not deserve to have a man who would be President call them bribed, coerced, bought, or extorted.

It would have been really nice if, between questions along the lines of "Senator, in how many ways has Bush screwed up?" Jim Lehrer had managed to throw in, "Senator, which of our Coalition allies were bribed or bought, which were extorted, and which were coerced?"