Boston Herald: In New Post, Kerry Can Be Comeback Kid
By Wayne Woodlief
Don’t be surprised to see the two Democrats who lost presidential campaigns to George W. Bush – robbed, some would say – lock arms in the fight against global warming at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing sometime soon in 2009.
Al Gore is the guru of the Clean Earth movement. With former Foreign Relations chairman Joe Biden’s ascendancy to vice president,John Kerry – who, with his wife, co-authored “This Moment on Earth” last year – is the new chairman. And he aims to use that bully pulpit to mount a strong new push for international cooperation in saving the environment.
Addressing a conference on climate change recently, Kerry knitted the environmental issue to the fight against international turmoil, another treacherous issue his committee must confront. He warned that climate catastrophes “create huge numbers of refugees . . . and food crises” that can lead to breeding grounds for terrorists and to global conflicts.
As an approach to the turmoil and tensions in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Kerry proposes a tough-love strategy. The U.S. should set up “joint operations centers” in Pakistan to coordinate long-term relief in education, economic recovery and other social needs, and obtain hard proof of progress in return.
And in Afghanistan, Kerry would hold out a carrot but also wield a big stick. “We ought to join with the internatonal community to give the Afghans financial support . . . but demand more accountability.” You know, like where’s all that money going.
Sure, Kerry will have some critics yelling at him about where their taxpayer bucks are going. But Long Jawn’s hide has grown tougher. Those Swift Boaters threw their toughest torpedoes at him, but he’s still standing, still moving.
Kerry’s ambitious agenda for the Foreign Relations Committee includes holding confirmation hearings quickly on President-elect Obama’s national security team – including Hillary Clinton for secretary of state, the job Kerry coveted. And Kerry should seek a partnership with Hillary, not a potential one-up rivalry.
He also will demand ongoing oversight on “ending the war in Iraq responsibly.” (How’s that for diplomatic wording – no timetable set, but urgency clearly implied.) Arms control and nuclear nonproliferation (see Pakistan and India) and keeping close watch onIran are also high on Kerry’s to-do list.
As for global terrorism, Kerry claims that the “battleground is the hearts and minds of the Muslim world.” Hearts and minds. That sounds familiar from the Vietnam war, the one in which Kerry fought and then opposed – including an appearance before the committee he now will chair – after our goverment horrendously mismanaged that war.
This time, Kerry believes it can work, if the U.S. works with tribes and other groups in hot-spot countries to resist terrorism, and provides them with security and humanitarian aid, such as it did after the Indonesia tsunami and Pakistan earthquake.
It also would help, given that Kerry calls for winning Muslim “hearts and minds,” if he de-stigmatizes the very use of the word. “Muslim” came close to being a dirty word during the presidential campaign. Radio loons incessantly referred to Barack Obama as a Muslim (even if he is a Christian). And neither the candidate nor many of his supporters had the stuff to just say, “What’s wrong with being Muslim?”
John Kerry, from the bully pulpit he now enjoys, ought to be saying that, early and often.
http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1136894M
