The whole premise of Kerry's argument is that other nations will agree with us because of two factors- their interests are aligned with our interests, and their leaders will make rational decisions based on their interests. It is very clear that the interests of France, Germany, Russia, and China were different from our interests in respect to Iraq. These four countries had extensive economic ties with Iraq and were minting money from those ties. Their leaders acted rationally in opposing the war because they knew they would lose those substantial investments. And guess what, they have lost those investments, so their judgement in the narrow scope of rational economic decision-making was correct.
If you look at the picture in Europe, the entire experiment with a constitution for Europe is on the verge of collapse because the interests of France and Germany are not aligned with the interests of the rest of Europe. There was a recent issue of The Economist with a great breakdown of the situation.
The Central Europeans want to become part of the global club. Poland is lobbying us to move our armed forces from Germany (high cost) to Poland (low cost). It would save US taxpayers lots of money and it would be a big boon for Poland's economy, but it would be a huge blow for parts of Germany. So it is in Poland's interest to support us in Iraq in the hopes of bolstering their chances in the military base sweepstakes.
Because of differing national interests, we are bound to fail a global test in respect to action in any location of consequence. That is the reality of today's multi-polar world.
>I've listened to the first debate again and the part about passing the
>"global test."
>
>Having heard it again, it seems clear to me that Mr. Kerry meant "full
>test" or "all encompassing test" versus a test on just a few factors.
>This would be opposed to what some are saying, that he meant
>"worldwide test."
>
>Anybody else agree?
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