The song remains the same...

The Kerry Spot has this Kerry quote from 1991, just before the Persian Gulf War. (It aired on Frontline and appeared in the Weekly Standard):

"Are we ready for the changes this war will bring?" Kerry asked then. "Changes in sons and daughters who return from combat never the same. . . . Are we ready for another generation of amputees, paraplegics, burn victims?" "There is a rush to war here," Kerry went on. The United States was acting "with more bravado than patience." His view of intervention was grim. "It sounds like we are risking war for pride," he continued, "not vital interests!"

My reaction when I read that: Does he have the same speech writer he had 13 years ago? "Rush to war"? Kerry voted against this war in 1991, that needs to be discussed. Iraq had invaded Kuwait and even then it was a "rush" and "bravado" to invade Iraq.

These are the Kerry Spot's comments on the quote:

Is it any surprise that the antiwar movement is supporting John Kerry, despite his pledges to "finish the job" in Iraq and increase military spending?

Every military action, except for the Bill Clinton style of only using tomahawks and high-altitude bombing, runs the risk of "amputees, paraplegics, burn victims." And no military action comes with a deadline. The U.S. waited three weeks before bombing the Taliban. There is always more time for diplomacy, if you are willing to believe your opponent might budge.

Why do I suspect that an America under President Kerry would be eternally patient, always willing to give sanctions a little more time, always willing to wait to see if the situation improves or if a rogue state responds to one more diplomatic overture?

When one looks at Kerry's comments from the Gulf War, one recognizes that this man would never invade another country, no matter how much some contended there was a threat. In fact, it's hard to imagine Kerry approving the use of ground forces in combat anywhere in the world. Too much risk of burn victims and "sons and daughters who return from combat never the same."

He truly does see every U.S. military action through the lens of Vietnam.

This is true. Kerry has no intention of really hunting down terrorists in other countries. He has no intention of invading countries that harbor and fund the suicide bombers that want to blow up the local elementary school. Democrats can yell about how we should believe Kerry when he tells us he will hunt them down...but his past behavior says otherwise. However, I will say that if Kerry came out and said something like "I was wrong about 1991, I was wrong about the way I talked about it and I was wrong about the way I voted. 9/11 changed me and my ideas about terrorism in the World and the need of the United States to defend itself against it." But he won't say anything like that. In fact, just this week the New York Times Magazine quoted him, showing that he won't even admit to being changed by 9/11:

"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."