So among Bush supporters who I regularly interact with, I often see it expressed that John Kerry just might not be warlike enough to attack our enemies if necessary. They point to his vote on Iraq in 1991, and less plausibly, his stance on the nuclear buildup in the eighties as examples. That begs a serious question, though. Has the United States ever failed to intervene in a war or invade another country when it really needed to? I’m not talking about humanitarian interventions, but actual wars to defend ourselves. The closest I can think of is Afghanistan in the late nineties. There was no way that the public would have supported it or the politicians would have gone for it, but knowing what we know now, we should have taken out the Taliban and al-Qaeda there before they struck us on 9/11.

The real question I’m asking about is whether this is a real concern — that a John Kerry Presidency would mean that we would fail to defend ourselves by not going to war when we should. Historically speaking, I just don’t see it. Anyway, I’ve started a discussion.