Bad Experience?

Given what Auskunft just, you know, said, and what everyone is talking about anyway, what's John Kerry's deal?

Let's take the joke at face value. Apparently, President George W. Bush did not receive a good education. Remember, the President went to Yale. John Kerry went to...yeah. Yale.

So, obviously, if you don't get a good education, you might end up a) in Iraq or b) as a loser crybaby senator from Taxachusetts. Ouch, stay in school, kids!

All right, second point. President Bush is not literally "in Iraq" most of the time. Usually he is, you know, in the White House, or at his ranch in Crawford, or traveling the world being the president. We have to take Senator Kerry somewhat less than literally, of course, and assume that being "in Iraq" means "planning, funding, or fighting the War in Iraq or otherwise intimately connected with those who are doing such actions." If Senator Kerry is trying to say that he is not "in Iraq" but President Bush is, that's rather telling. I would say, as an American, that I am "in Iraq" by the senator's definition. I would never dream of saying that I am taking on any risk, being merely a civilian and not bravely risking my life for the country, but the senator said he wasn't talking about the troops, so I have to take him for his word - being "in Iraq" does not mean "being a soldier in Iraq." I have a friend who may very well be in Iraq soon as a second lieutenant.

So on the one hand you have people "in Iraq" and on the other, Senator Kerry and his supporters. If we construe his words as he wants them construed, he does not feel like he is involved at all with a war that our soldiers are currently fighting, and, mirabile dictu, this man is a United States Senator. I hear he voted for the war (before, well, you know). He does not feel that this is his war and he is not in it.

I think that says a lot about him. Americans, I think, believe this is our war, even if many Americans no longer support the goals of the war. We are in Iraq. John Kerry is not.

When people say liberals hate America, this is what they mean.