“Never give up, never surrender” –Galaxy Quest

Clearly, I don’t know when to drop this, but Ted Kennedy just gave a speech where he criticized Bush’s foreign policy with Iraq. I’m not a big Ted Kennedy fan (I voted against him the last time he ran), but he articulates my concerns much better than I did in the previous discussion. In particular:

Few would deny that President Bush deserves immense credit for the way he united America and rallied the entire international community after the appalling attacks of September 11th. He offered impressive leadership during the conflict in Afghanistan and in the early months of the continuing battle against Al Qaeda.

But few can also deny that after that, we squandered too much of the good will of the world community because we seemed so intent on immediate, unilateral war with Iraq.

Surely, we can have effective relationships with other nations without adopting a chip-on-the-shoulder foreign policy – a my-way-or-the-highway policy that makes all our goals in the world more difficult to achieve.

Also interesting are the comments from Sen. Chuck Hagel (R - Nebraska), who also urges for some restraint. This isn’t limited to just Democrats trying to make a partisan point.

The full text of Kennedy’s speech can be found at Senator Kennedy’s web site.