The Bush campaign couldn’t just accept defeat in the first debate and move on; they have to flail around until they find something on which they can focus their attention. Four years ago, it was Al Gore’s “sighs”; this week, it’s John Kerry’s “Global Test.”
Gore’s breathing proved to be an effective distraction; the “Global Test” won’t.
First, consider exactly what Kerry said in last week’s debate in response to a question about his position on pre-emptive war.
“The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. And it was always one of the things we argued about with respect to arms control.
“No president, though all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.
“But if and when you do it, Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.”
Now, consider how Bush describes Kerry’s position.
“He said that America has to pass a global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves. That’s what he said. Think about this. Sen. Kerry’s approach to foreign policy would give foreign governments veto power over our national security decisions. I have a different view. When our country is in danger, the president’s job is not to take an international poll. The president’s job is to defend America. I’ll continue to work every day with our friends and allies for the sake of freedom and peace. But our national security decisions will be made in the Oval Office, not in foreign capitals.”
Early in the debate, Kerry explicitly said, “I’ll never give a veto to any country over our security.” Maybe that wasn’t quite clear enough for Bush.
And just as importantly, as William Saletan noted, the fact that BC04 is making a big deal about this is actually revealing a “fatal flaw” in Bush’s own approach to foreign policy.
It’s clear from Kerry’s first sentence that the “global test” doesn’t prevent unilateral action to protect ourselves. But notice what else Kerry says. The test includes convincing “your countrymen” that your reasons are clear and sound. Kerry isn’t just talking about satisfying France. He’s talking about satisfying Ohio. He’s talking about you.
What do you have in common with a Frenchman? Look again at Kerry’s words. He says the test is to “prove” that our reasons for attacking were legitimate. In the next sentence, he gives an example of someone failing that test: Colin Powell’s February 2003 presentation to the United Nations about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What did Powell apologize for? The inaccuracy of our intelligence. Kerry contrasts this with the trust France once placed in American spy photos.
Proof, intelligence, spy photos. The pattern is obvious. The test isn’t moral. It’s factual. What you and the Frenchman share is the evidence of your senses. The global test is the measurement of the president’s assertions against the real world, the world you and I can see.
This is the test Bush has failed.
Exactly. Kerry said he’d willing to launch a pre-emptive strike — and he wouldn’t seek permission to do so. He added, however, that such a move should be justifiable so that no one could question our motivations. A Kerry administration would base a pre-emptive strike on something Bush finds foreign and/or inconvenient: reliable evidence.
He has failed to produce evidence for his prewar claims of Iraqi WMD and operational ties to al-Qaida, or for his postwar claims of success against the insurgency. Now he’s going further. He’s not simply failing the test. He’s refusing to take it.
Listen to Bush’s words again. “The president’s job is not to take an international poll,” he says. “Our national security decisions will be made in the Oval Office, not in foreign capitals.” Bush doesn’t say these decisions belong to the United States. He says they belong to the Oval Office. He frames this as patriotism, boasting that he doesn’t care whether he offers evidence sufficient to convince people in France. He shows no awareness or concern that evidence is also necessary to convince people in Ohio. He says it isn’t his job to take a “poll,” to hear what others think. He needs no validation.
Bush pretends he’s just blowing off the French. But his comments show a pattern of blowing off external feedback in general. He shrugs off information that debunks his claims about WMD, arguing that it’s more important for a president to understand the overall nature of the world. He defines credibility as agreement with himself. He reinterprets evidence of policy mistakes in postwar Iraq as evidence of success. In Thursday’s debate, he dismissed unwelcome reports from that country as too offensive to heed. And according to Sunday’s New York Times, he and his aides exaggerated Iraq’s nuclear capability, ignoring warnings from “the government’s foremost nuclear experts.”
Bush claims he has done all this to protect you. But that claim is precisely what’s challenged by the evidence he conceals or disregards. What he’s protecting you from is the ability to measure his assertions against the world that you and I can see. That’s the global test he’s mocking. And he expects you to applaud him for it, because he thinks you resent the French so much you’d rather have a president accountable to no one.
You know the real problem? Bush’s charge doesn’t make any sense, and is based on fundamentally flawed logic, but he’s going to use it every day for the rest of the campaign. In speeches, TV ads, radio spots, websites, etc., we’ll hear that Kerry won’t protect us against terrorists unless it passes a “global test” first.
The irony is, Bush doesn’t need evidence to launch a war and he doesn’t need it to launch a baseless political attack.