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Senator Kerry, Davos, and Civic Duty

Today, Senator John Kerry at the Davos economic summit attacked the Bush Administration for isolating the U.S. and turning it into "a sort of international pariah."

Others have commented on the inaccuracies in his allegations, but there is also the troubling aspect that Senator Kerry and a few other Americans feel at liberty to travel overseas and then attack the United States. Gone is the old tradition that criticism of your country ends at the waters’ edge.

In his defense, Senator Kerry may see himself as more the cosmopolitan man with world-wide portfolio and allegiance to no country. If, however, he still considers himself an American first and foremost, then perhaps he and others congenitally cursed with foot-in-mouth disease, should, at least during this time of war against a ruthless enemy, return to some basic concepts of civic duty.

In Civilization And Its Enemies, the author explains the role that forgetfulness plays in the fall of civilizations. His comment on civic duty is one that Senator Kerry should take for action.

They [Civilized people]forget that to fight an enemy it is necessary to have a leader whom you trust, and how, at such times, this trust is a civic duty and not evidence of one's credulity. They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the enemy.

Senator Kerry needs to recognize the risks he, and all our elected officials, create for our troops and the Country when they provide talking points to our enemy.

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