When I asked Kerry how Sept. 11 had changed him, either personally or politically, he seemed to freeze for a moment.
''It accelerated -- '' He paused. ''I mean, it didn't change me much at all. It just sort of accelerated, confirmed in me, the urgency of doing the things I thought we needed to be doing. I mean, to me, it wasn't as transformational as it was a kind of anger, a frustration and an urgency that we weren't doing the kinds of things necessary to prevent it and to deal with it.''
...''We need to engage more directly and more respectfully with Islam, with the state of Islam, with religious leaders, mullahs, imams, clerics, in a way that proves this is not a clash with the British and the Americans and the old forces they remember from the colonial days. And that's all about your diplomacy. . . .A new presidency with the right moves, the right language, the right outreach, the right initiatives, can dramatically alter the world's perception of us very, very quickly."Deacon at Powerline comments:
In this passage Kerry is simultaneously (a) blaming American colonialism (or the inability to disassociate ourselves from the colonialist past of the British) for the heightened threat posed by terrorism, (b) claiming that we can end that level of threat through language, outreach, and diplomatic initiatives, and (c) admitting that even an event like 9/11 was insufficient to shake this Carteresque mentality.
Actually, I think the quote can be summarized fairly easily as an Everything-I-Need-to-Know-I-Learned-in-Kindegarten approach to foreign policy. You just have to be nicer. You just have to refrain from being mean to the other kids. It's amazing--just share and put things where they belong and speak in the right tone of voice and it all turns out wonderful.
