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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / How Serious Are They

How Serious Are They

by John Cole|  April 1, 20045:03 pm| 6 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs

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One of the main talking points of many Democrats and Senator Kerry is that if they had done things ‘their way,’ they would have received a lot more international support and we would not be shuldering the burden in Iraq. Despite the fact that this is laughable statement due to the fact that the rest of the world really doesn’t have the military capability or willingness to achieve what we have achieved in Iraq, I wonder where they get the idea that they somehow would be able to persuade the ‘international community’ to provide more military assistance. There certainly is little precedent for this sort of statement, and Afghanistan is a sterling example.

Very few will argue that the world was united in regards to the mission in Afghanistan. Today, thousands of troops from NATO countries are deployed, and if you examine the rhetoric, everyone is 100% behind the mission and reconstruction there. Except, the actions of the international communities suggest otherwise:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared an international meeting on development aid a success Thursday, but warned Afghanistan’s battle against the illegal drug trade was a long-term struggle.

International donors at the two-day summit pledged more than $8 billion in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan. That sum is to be delivered during the next three years with Afghanistan receiving nearly $4.5 billion in aid this year…

More than 700 delegates from more than 50 countries were at the conference, including Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The United States pledged almost half this year’s aid and donated an additional $123 million to combating Afghanistan’s illegal drug trade. Mr. Powell said America is also prepared to provide troops for this purpose.

Do the math- 49 countries contribute half the aid, we contribute the other half. That is the kind of support that we get when the international community is behind us. With that in mind, when John Kerry and the anti-Iraq Democrats makes statements like this:

We need to internationalize both the military and civilian sides of the occupation and build a coalition that will provide tangible assistance in terms of boots on the ground and money in the coffers for Iraqi reconstruction. Only in this way will we reduce the risk to American service members and alleviate some of the financial burden on the American taxpayer for reconstruction.

Just giggle and admire their audacity.

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Reader Interactions

6Comments

  1. 1.

    shark

    April 1, 2004 at 5:30 pm

    I’m getting mighty fucking sick of listening to this mantra over and over and over from Kerry.

    HOW WILL HE DO THIS, KISS THEIR ASSES UNTIL THEIR BUTTCHEEKS CHAP AND MAKE THEM WINCE??

    I almost want this asshat to win election, just to see his stupefied expression on his face when France, Germany, et. al. don’t suddenly love us and agree to put up men and money for causes, just because we make kissy faces at them.

    THE ONLY WAY KERRY CAN MAKE THESE NATIONS DO ANYTHING IS THROUGH BRIBERY. So I want to know what Kerry is planning on buying their cooperation with? How will he sell America out so he can win the approval of our French and German “superiors”???

  2. 2.

    Rick

    April 1, 2004 at 6:03 pm

    “Despite the fact that this is laughable statement due to the fact that the rest of the world really doesn’t have the military capability or willingness to achieve what we have achieved in Iraq…”

    John,

    Are you suggesting that the Canadian Air Force’s plane wouldn’t have been of some use last year?

    And what about Belgium’s self-propelled gun?

    Cordially…

  3. 3.

    HH

    April 2, 2004 at 12:24 pm

    Bush needs to run an ad with pictures of foreign leaders like Chirac, and say “a vote for John Kerry is not a vote for John Kerry for president. A vote for John Kerry is a vote for THESE people for president,” and finish on Kofi Annan’s face. Then go to Kerry’s boasting about foreign leaders, followed by “Gee, we wonder why?”

  4. 4.

    Sebastian Holsclaw

    April 2, 2004 at 3:53 pm

    I agree. I constantly make the point that EU help in Afghanistan is pathetic for a conglomeration of nations with a greater population and GDP than the United States. And Afghanistan is supposedly the easy case. Afghanistan is the case everyone agrees on. Which only suggests that there wasn’t going to be much support for anything done outside of Afghanistan.

  5. 5.

    M. Simon

    April 4, 2004 at 11:26 am

    America sends Afghanistan $123 million to combat illegal drugs and spends well over $40 billion in America to support them (aka the Government Heroin Price Support and Gang Finance Program aka The War On Drugs).

    Big surprise here is that the Europeans are wising up on this one well before the Americans. (Kerry still ain’t getting my vote).

Comments are closed.

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  1. Pandagon says:
    April 1, 2004 at 9:09 pm

    Aid for Afghanistan

    John Cole’s latest post really falls short of the “reality” threshhold. The argument goes something like this: Democrats think they could have gotten more material support for Iraq by being “friendly” to our “allies” but they’re wrong. Why? Well, every…

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