Looking back now nine years, it is clear that America lost out when George W. Bush, who lied us into a war in Iraq in 2003, and was not keeping track of Al Qaeda before September 11 while on vacation in Crawford, Texas in 2001, defeated John Kerry in 2004 in a ruthless campaign based upon lies and deceit!
Senator Kerry had been an outstanding Senator from Massachusetts for 20 years, had been a courageous soldier in Vietnam, but had the “nerve” to oppose the continuation of the war in 1971 under Richard Nixon’s Presidency, after returning home from his war service.
For this, Kerry was pilloried by the Bush campaign, while Bush served in the National Guard, and was mostly absent, if not reading magazines, while on so called “duty”, gaining preference because of his dad!
So Kerry went back to the Senate, and continued a brilliant career, becoming Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, until he was tapped by President Barack Obama to replace Hillary Clinton in the State Department’s top post.
And now, just months into his time as Secretary of State, Kerry has already shown just how principled, how committed he is to international law, to morality and ethics, to common decency, and to concern for human rights and the lives of innocent men, women and children, who have been slaughtered by outlaw dictator Bashar Al Assad with the use of chemical weapons!
Kerry is a true statesman, a man who hates war due to personal experience, but knows that if nothing is done in this attack against humanity, it will embolden other dictators to think they can get away with this in the future, reminding us of what happened in the 1930s, as people stood by and allowed Adolf Hitler to take advantage of weakness!
But ultimately, the civilized world had to fight Hitler and Nazi Germany anyway, but it was just that much more difficult because of the delay in reaction, and the fear of taking action!
We are indeed fortunate to have John Kerry as our Secretary of State, a true statesman and historic figure, even if he was not elected President of the United States in 2004!