Edwards as `good-cop' Cheney

[There was a great piece peaking on some of the real stories behind the DP
convention on Bill Moyer's NOW on PBS, and of course there's been good
reporting by Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!.  Oh, and of course Jon
Stewart's the Daily Show.  Enjoy 4 more years (of war supported by
"antiwar" voters)!  "WAR IS PEACE, ..."]

John Edwards addresses DNC
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/28/dems.edwards.transcript/

...

When John is president, we will listen to the wisdom of the September
11th Commission.  We will build and lead strong alliances and safeguard
and secure weapons of mass destruction.  We will strengthen our homeland
security and protect our ports, safeguard our chemical plants, and
support our firefighters, police officers and EMT's.  We will always use
our military might to keep the American people safe.

And we will have one clear unmistakable message for al Qaida and the
rest of these terrorists.  You cannot run.  You cannot hide.  And we
will destroy you.

John understands personally about fighting in a war.  And he knows what
our brave men and women are going through in another war--the war in Iraq.

The human cost and extraordinary heroism of this war, it surrounds us.
It surrounds us in our cities and towns.  And we will win this war
because of the strength and courage of our own people.

Some of our friends and neighbors saw their last images in Baghdad.
Some took their last steps outside of Fallujah.  And some buttoned their
uniform for the final time before they went out to save their unit.

Men and women who used to take care of themselves, they now count on
others to see them through the day.  They need their mother to tie their
shoe.  Their husband to brush their hair.  And their wife's arm to help
them across the room.

The stars and stripes wave for them.  The word hero was made for them.
They are the best and the bravest.  They will never be left behind.  You
understand that.  And they deserve a president who understands on the most
personal level what they have gone through--what they have given and what
they have given up for their country.

To us, the real test of patriotism is how we treat the men and women who
put their lives on the line every day to defend our values.  And let me
tell you, the 26 million veterans in this country won't have to wonder
if they'll have health care next week or next year--they will have it
always because they took care of us and we will take care of them.

But today, our great United States military is stretched thin.  More
than 140,000 are in Iraq.  Nearly 20,000 are serving in Afghanistan.
And I visited the men and women there and we're praying for them as they
keep working to give that country hope.

Like all of those brave men and women, John put his life on the line for
our country.  He knows that when authority is given to the president,
much is expected in return. That’s why we will strengthen and modernize
our military.

We will double our Special Forces, and invest in the new equipment and
technologies so that our military remains the best equipped and best
trained in the world.  This will make our military stronger so we’re
able to defeat every enemy in this new world.

But we can't do this alone.  We have to restore our respect in the world
to bring our allies to us and with us.  It's how we won the World Wars
and the Cold War and it is how we will build a stable Iraq.

With a new president who strengthens and leads our alliances, we can get
NATO to help secure Iraq.  We can ensure that Iraq's neighbors like
Syria and Iran, don't stand in the way of a democratic Iraq.  We can
help Iraq's economy by getting other countries to forgive their enormous
debt and participate in the reconstruction.  We can do this for the
Iraqi people and our soldiers.  And we will get this done right.

A new president will bring the world to our side, and with it--a stable
Iraq and a real chance for peace and freedom in the Middle East,
including a safe and secure Israel.  And John and I will bring the world
together to face our most dangerous threat: the possibility of
terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon.

...

---

The London Telegraph July 29, 2004
Kerry 'will not change foreign policy'
By David Rennie in Boston

America's allies expecting a shift in United States foreign policy from
a President John Kerry should think again, his top advisers said yesterday.

Instead, members of Mr Kerry's inner circle could promise only "stark
contrasts" of personality and style between President George W Bush and
their candidate, who they vowed would be a "hands-on, engaged,
diplomat-in-chief".

Rand Beers, the national security adviser to the Kerry campaign, opened
a high-level briefing with a warning: "In many ways, the goals of the
two administrations are in fact not all that different."

Mr Kerry has come under growing criticism from foreign policy
commentators for failing to offer more than the blandest proposals that
he would restore frayed alliances and behave more respectfully of allies
and international bodies.

But yesterday another top adviser, Richard Holbrooke, offered no details
on policy questions ranging from Iraq to the Middle East or America's
withdrawal from the Kyoto Treaty and the International Criminal Court.

His silence was unsurprising. Although 95 per cent of rank and file
delegates to this week's convention opposed the Iraq war, Mr Kerry voted
for it, and has hinted that he might keep US troops there for several
years. He has promised that he would win extra help from allies by
burnishing America's image so that it is "respected, not simply feared".

Instead, Mr Holbrooke, a former United Nations ambassador who is spoken
of as a possible secretary of state in a Kerry administration, offered
what he clearly hoped was a reassuring psychological sketch of Mr Kerry
as a cosmopolitan internationalist.

Mr Holbrooke told a packed gathering of foreign political leaders and
ambassadors to look past the Democrats' manifesto and focus on Mr
Kerry's life story. "John Kerry is a fundamental internationalist," he
said. "It is relevant that his father served as a foreign service
officer. It is relevant that his father served in Berlin at the height
of the Cold War."

Mr Kerry was partly educated in Europe, spoke foreign languages and was
married to the multi-lingual Teresa Heinz Kerry, of Portuguese heritage,
he added.

"He likes to travel, he understands the issues. He's so interested in
foreign cultures; one of the biggest things that he has been interested
in recently has been the Tour de France," Mr Holbrooke told an audience
that included the British ambassador, Sir David Manning, several Labour
MPs including the former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, and the Liberal
Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy.

Mr Kennedy appeared underwhelmed by the assurances about building
alliances. During his visit to the Democratic convention, he said he was
encountering "quite a lot of ambiguity about how foreign policy will be
pursued, and how fundamentally different it would be, from our point of
view".

Mr Kennedy said there was a "simplistic" assumption in Britain that "if
Kerry is elected, all our problems will be over".

With Kerry in the White House, allies in Europe might find themselves
under heavy pressure to match multilateral rhetoric with money and
troops, he said.

"Kerry people have indicated that if they become more multi-lateral, the
quid pro quo would be that we can't sit on the sidelines and criticise.
They're talking about military overstretch, they're going to be looking
for contributions from us, and from France and Germany."

His views were echoed by Labour MPs attending the convention. Mike
Gapes, Labour MP for Ilford South, said: "I don't believe there will be
a massive change in foreign policy if there's a change in
administration." But he predicted that a second Bush administration
might prove a kindlier, gentler foreign partner than the current US
government - although such predictions are not universally shared in
Washington.

On a visit to Washington earlier this month, Mr Gapes said he found the
deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, bullish that the State
Department's more cautious approach to foreign policy was in the
ascendant, with neo-conservative hawks at the Pentagon wounded by Iraq.

In a final proof of how far Labour has changed, Mr Gapes expressed
concern that a Kerry win might even trigger trade spats with the
Americans as US trade unions flexed their muscles.
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