President Kerry

...spoke today on our National Insecurity and what he intends to do about it. I've yet to read the entire transcript of his speech (been busy rereading Al Gore's from yesterday. Whoo boy! More on that a little later.), but I like what I hear. I wonder if Gore's blistering attack yesterday will pull Kerry into a better fighting stance than he's assumed to date.

Kerry needs to say what must be said. America must be made aware of the stakes here. We need not appeal to the "moderate" misunderstanding of just how dire of a situation we now find ourselves in, thanks to Bush's actions since assuming power. Americans must be educated at every point of the ideological sliding scale as to the unmitigated failure of Bush in the War on Terror. He has put this and at least the next generation of Americans at an incredibly heightened risk, as well as ushering in an age of global destabilization we've very rarely seen before.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Democratic White House challenger John Kerry on Thursday proposed a national security policy to better fight terror and repair what he described as the damage caused by President Bush's go-it-alone bullying.

"There is still a powerful yearning around the world for an America that listens and leads again -- an America that is respected, and not just feared," Kerry declared in remarks prepared for delivery at a campaign event in Seattle.

Kerry offered a national security policy based on "four imperatives": building a new era of U.S.-led alliances; modernizing the military; better use of diplomatic, intelligence and economic power; and freeing America from its dependence on Mideast oil.

But now compare that with a taste of Gore's speech yesterday (but you really must see the speech to truly appreciate the passion with which it was delivered):

What happened at the prison, it is now clear, was not the result of random acts by "a few bad apples," it was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy that has dismantled those wise constraints and has made war on America's checks and balances.

The abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration's march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th.

There was then, there is now and there would have been regardless of what Bush did, a threat of terrorism that we would have to deal with. But instead of making it better, he has made it infinitely worse. We are less safe because of his policies. He has created more anger and righteous indignation against us as Americans than any leader of our country in the 228 years of our existence as a nation -- because of his attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation who disagrees with him.

He has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack by terrorists because of his arrogance, willfulness, and bungling at stirring up hornet's nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us. And by then insulting the religion and culture and tradition of people in other countries. And by pursuing policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children, all of it done in our name. President Bush said in his speech Monday night that the war in Iraq is "the central front in the war on terror." It's not the central front in the war on terror, but it has unfortunately become the central recruiting office for terrorists. [Dick Cheney said, "This war may last the rest of our lives.] The unpleasant truth is that President Bush's utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States. Just yesterday, the International Institute of Strategic Studies reported that the Iraq conflict " has arguable focused the energies and resources of Al Qaeda and its followers while diluting those of the global counterterrorism coalition." The ISS said that in the wake of the war in Iraq Al Qaeda now has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks.

How utterly refreshing it is to hear the truth spoken plainly (if red-faced and trembling with anger).