Hugh has the best wrapup of Kerry's "Soldiers are dumb" gaffe and its broader historical context:
Kerry reminded people that the war against the war has been underway since mid-2003, and that the Democrats have never taken the many opportunities to try and rally around the effort to reconstruct a free Iraq but at every turn have demanded an exit on some sort of rushed and arbitrary timetable. They disparaged the effort to push elections forward, then the effort to form a government, and now that government's effort to rule and unite. The enemy has been watching, and has calculated that they only way they can win is by waiting out America ---just as the North Vietnamese did.
Today Kerry also reminded all Americans of the deep, anti-military bias that has infected the left since Vietnam, and through the left, the MSM. In a flash all the anti-military rhetoric that began in the late '60s and built through 9/11 was back on the front shelf. (Donna Shalala's on Vietnam veterans: “not our best and brightest." Clinton Assistant Secretary of the Army Sara Lister: ""The Marines are extremists. Wherever you have extremists, you've got some risks of total disconnection with society. And that's a little dangerous." Michael Moore's portrait of the recruits in his bit of agitprop.)
If a politican told a racially-caustic joke - with very overt intent strictly to amuse, unlike Kerry's flub - would it be a defense? "It all depends on what the definition of the word n****r is?"
Rubbish. Kerry's not a standup comedian who gets paid to rankle. He's a politician. And like any politician, almost by definition, he plays to his audience. You don't tell Jewish jokes (beyond the most innocuous) if you're speaking at the B'nai B'rith. You don't rip the Huskies in Duluth.
And while you'd never dig on the intelligence and motivations of the troops at Fort Benning, you might do it - tell "a joke" about it - among a crowd of friends. Among people who believe as you do.
So sure - it's a joke.
And the fact that you thought it was safe to tell at all tells us more than your botched delivery ever could.
Posted by Mitch at
November 1, 2006 07:30 AM
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