War On Terror – Bumper Sticker

 John Edwards like Joe Biden here has had a lot to say about the war on terror.  Most recently it has been about how the War on Terror of George Bush is really a sham and designed for political purposes and NOT to make America safer (see below).  So John Edwards can vote for and claim repeatedly that he will be behind the “War on Terror” until the end and suddenly he is another Democrat getting in the race for the nomination and everything he said before is of no account and that makes Bush the one that is playing politics.  Sheesh!

“The core of this presidency has been a political doctrine that George Bush calls the ‘Global War on Terror.’ He has used this doctrine like a sledgehammer to justify the worst abuses and biggest mistakes of his administration… The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It’s a bumper sticker, not a plan. It has damaged our alliances and weakened our standing in the world… The ‘war’ metaphor has also failed because it exaggerates the role of only one instrument of American power–the military… we must move beyond the idea of a war on terror.”  …. John Edwards

Lets examine where John Edwards has been on this issue when other sympathies prevailed in the electorate.

1. Voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion of Iraq
2. At DNC Convention in 2004 in acceptance speech for Vice Presidency: “We are a nation at war, global war on terror.”
3. Democratic Platform in 2004 that Edwards ran for President on:  Today, we face three great challenges above all others – first, to win the global war against terror; second, to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; and third, to promote democracy and freedom around the world, starting with a peaceful and stable Iraq.

Now up to recently when the left blogosphere started panning the use of the words “war on terror” even the left portion of the Democratic party largely separated their view of the War in Iraq from that of the “War on Terror,” but Mr. Edwards now is stepping out with a disingenuous change of rhetoric to fit with the base of the Democratic party.  Ok, so be it, but who is using the words “war on terror” for political purposes.

I would like to add that even when Edwards was trying to sound strong on the “war on terror” including the war in Iraq, we come to find from his campaign manager (Bob Shrum) of 2004 when Edwards was running for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency that both John and his wife were against casting his vote in the Senate for the War in Iraq, but his political consultants (in Shrum’s own words here paragraph 5) prevailed on Edwards that he needed to vote for the resolution, which of course he did and so I wonder how much more political you can get with this issue than to change your vote for the war resolution based on your own political needs.

And just one further point, I wonder how we have intercepted so many terrorist plots in the U.S. and world at large and have spared this country from additional attacks so far and for so long if the President is not trying to make America safe as  Edwards claims (his words not mine).  [hmm]

UPDATE:  I wanted to update this post to include a link provided by a commenter “Total Transformation Test” of a video of John Edwards stating that he will support the “War on Terror” to the end. here