Inkeherrynce on Pre-emption

I have to disagree with the conventional wisdom (and the President's own statements during the debate) that John Kerry keeps changing his positions. For John Kerry to change his positions means that John Kerry would have had to hold a position for at least a moment before he changes it. But as far as I can tell, John Kerry does not change the positions that he holds so much as he consistently holds so many positions that he is consistent and constant in his incoherence. Inkeherrynce.

Here is what he had to say in the debate about pre-emptive strikes:

The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. ... 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.

I summarize: The President doesn't have to cede the right to take legitimate pre-emptive action as long as he cedes to "the world" the right to judge whether that pre-emptive action was legitimate.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 30, 2004 11:57 PM