Kerry should register as an EU lobbyist

As expected, in a speech today John Kerry demonstrated that he's more dedicated to the interests of Old Europe than he is to the interests of the United States.

"Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars," Kerry said in speech prepared for delivery to the Veterans of Foreign War. "But it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible way."

Apparently these veterans were previously unaware that the senator was himself a veteran.  Apart from that, someone ought to ask the senator: When is the "right time" for troops that have been garrisoned in those countries for almost 60 years after the end of the hostilities that brought them there, and nearly 15 years after the disintegration of the enemy that kept them there?

 

There is no strategic reason to keep the troops in the Cold War frontiers.  One must conclude that the real issue for Kerry is the distress that the troop pullout will bring to those who are addicted to the military largesse of the American people.  As Mark Steyn describes it in an essay in today's Telegraph:

The basic flaw in the Atlantic "alliance" is that, for almost all its participants, the free world is a free lunch: a defence pact of wealthy nations in which only one guy picks up the tab.

Now that the guy with the checkbook is moving on, the freeloaders are starting to wail.  The EU fancies itself to be the world's best shot at a counterbalance to America's "hyperpower" but, again quoting Steyn, "It must surely be awfully embarrassing to be the first superpower in history to be permanently garrisoned by your principal rival superpower."  Well, here's your chance to show you're made of something more than gossamer.

 

Kerry complains that we are bringing troops home -- as if we were standing down.  He knows better than that, but he apparently hopes that enough voters can be convinced otherwise.  What we are doing, of course, is redeploying forces so that they are better positioned to fight the current war.

 

Sen. Kerry, if you truly wish to lead the United States, you'd better be ready to do what it takes -- even if it means "undermining" alliances with countries that have no real interest in participating in the current war (at least until the current war inevitably comes to them).