Global test

Kerry's little catch phrase that he probably wishes he hadn't said has started causing some controversy. The premise of just how the phrase sounds is ridiculous. What the hell is a global test? Is he arguing that we have to seek approval from the world before defending our country? But defenders of Kerry claim that he did explain it and everyone is taking it out of context, so lets look at what exactly what he said.

But if and when you do [pre-emptive war], Jim, you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

Ok, so this global test is two-fold. First, the people must understand why the President plans on going to war. Well, I don't think anyone can argue that the President never gave an argument as to why we were going to war. Bush claimed that Saddam had WMDs, that he was an evil brutal dictator, that we needed to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and numerous other reasons for why he was leading us into Iraq. So Bush passed part one of the global test. One can disagree with whether or not Bush's plan was the right one, but he definitely stated his reasons as to why we were going to war.

The second part of the test, which is of course the ridiculous part, is that you have to prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons. So did Bush prove that Saddam had WMDs? No, not really, but everyone else thought he did too. France thought Iraq had WMDs. England thought they had WMDs. From General Tommy Franks book, the Egyptians thought Iraq had WMDs. Many others thought Saddam had WMDs. Everyone thought that Saddam was a brutal dictator and that the world would be better without a man like that in power. The U.N. even passed resolutions and sanctions in attempt to remove him from power. So how can anyone possibly argue that Bush did not have the approval that Saddam should be removed?

So in my eyes, Bush passes Kerry's silly global test.