Context is a bitch

Readers of Powerline got a dose of this today:

One of the primary examples cited by Dana Milbank in his story on the unprecedented dishonesty of the Bush campaign was the campaign's charge that Kerry had questioned whether the war on terrorism is actually a war. Milbank said that Kerry has "not questioned the war on terrorism." This, of course, is not exactly what the Bush campaign had accused Kerry of doing (Milbank was either being slopply or deceptive), but the import of Milbank's claim is clear -- the Bush campaign was claiming falsely that Kerry had questioned whether the struggle against terrorism is a war.

But reader Gary Comer has found a New York Times interview in which Kerry does indeed raise just that question. Speaking about the war on terrorism on March 6, 2004, Kerry said "and the war - not the war, I don't want to use that terminology." I guess Milbank missed that one.

But I think we should put the quote back in context. From the New York Times

The war on terror depends on the most unprecedented cooperation in American history, the thing they're worst at. The final victory in the war on terror depends on a victory in the war of ideas, much more than the war on the battlefield. And the war - not the war, I don't want to use that terminology. The engagement of economies, the economic transformation, the transformation to modernity of a whole bunch of countries that have been avoiding the future. And that future's coming at us like it or not, in the context of terror, and in the context of failed states, and dysfunctional economies, and all that goes with that.

I mean, look. We're investing less money - and it's not all money - but we're investing less money in the totality of our global efforts today, barring the war today, than we did when Ronald Reagan was president and half the world was shut to us because of the Cold War. By about one-third. It's around $26 or so billion…

Hmm... He quite cleary refers to the war on terror as a war. I count it three times. Once even after the so called denial of calling it a war.

So this is a flip-flop then, right? No. Kerry stops short of saying there exists a war of economy between us certain countries in the world. There needs to be, rather, an engagement there, one that encourages them to modernize and move them into the 21st century. Failed economies in other countries are not good for America, and the last paragraph is a continuation of that thought. Minus that war on terror (which he calls a war), we spend less now than we did during the Reagan era on helping these countries. We need to more global to help those less fortunate economically. And that, ultimately, will help in the war on terror.

Hence, this part of John Kerry's foriegn policy(under VIII. Build Bridges to the Islamic World):

Promote Dialogue and Understanding by Appointing a Presidential Envoy to the Islamic World. Kerry will improve the reputation and understanding of America in the Islamic world by appointing a Presidential envoy who will be tasked with building social, cultural, and economic relations in key nations.

Context can be such a bitch.