Alienating Our Allies

Charles Krauthammer has a brilliant and insightful column on John Kerry’s arrogant dismissal of our allies in the war on terrorism:

The terrorists’ objective is to intimidate all countries allied with America. Make them bleed and tell them this is the price they pay for being a U.S. ally. The implication is obvious: Abandon America and buy your safety.

That is what the terrorists are saying. Why is the Kerry campaign saying the same thing? “John Kerry’s campaign has warned Australians that the Howard Government’s support for the US in Iraq has made them a bigger target for international terrorists.” So reports the Weekend Australian (Sept. 18).

Krauthammer notes that it is Australia who has fought alongside this country in every war in the past 100 years. Australia is the one nation on Earth that shares many of the same values with America – we’re both nations that came from the English tradition but found a new set of values on the frontiers of a new continent. We both share the values of self-reliance and the understanding that the greatest task a nation can achieve is to support the march of democracy worldwide.

Yet John Kerry arrogantly is trying to manipulate their election. John Kerry says that the coalition in Iraq is “fraudulent” when soldiers from many nations are putting their lives on the line to help build a more peaceful Iraq. When the Prime Minister of Iraq goes to Washington to meet with our leaders, he doesn’t bother to show up – instead he snipes at him from the campaign trail.

As Krauthammer continues:

This snide and reckless put-down more than undermines our best friends abroad. It demonstrates the cynicism of Kerry’s promise to broaden our coalition in Iraq. If this is how Kerry repays America’s closest allies — ridiculing the likes of Tony Blair and John Howard — who does he think is going to step up tomorrow to be America’s friend?

The only thing that distinguishes Kerry’s Iraq proposals from Bush’s is his promise to deploy his unique, near-mystical ability to bring in new allies to fight and pay for the war in Iraq — to “make Iraq the world’s responsibility” and get others to “share the burden,” as he said this week at New York University.

Yet even Richard Holbrooke, a top Kerry foreign policy adviser, admits that the president of France is not going to call up President Kerry and say, “How many divisions should I send to Iraq?”

Nor will anyone else. Kerry abuses America’s closest friends while courting those, like Germany and France, that have deliberately undermined America before, during and after the war. What lessons are leaders abroad to draw from this when President Kerry asks them — pretty please in his most mellifluous French — to put themselves on the line for the United States?

The lesson will be that those politicians who arrogantly insult our most valued allies and closest friends will lose in an American election. The lesson is that a man who has nothing but insults for a man who comes to Washington to thank us for our sacrifices in freeing his people does not deserve to be anywhere near the Oval Office. It’s another reason why I just made a donation to the Bush campaign, and why all those who truly want America to be respected in the world rather than arrogantly pushing away our friends to suck up to those who loathe us should do the same.

UPDATE: Joe Lockhart says something even worse about Allawi. It is absolutely appalling and utterly disgusting that anyone would insult a leader of an allied country during a diplomatic visit. The Kerry campaign should fire Joe Lockhart immediately for such a reprehensible comment. Is this how Kerry would make America respected in the world?