John Kerry insults our allies while the smoke still rises from the terrorist bombing of the Australian Embassy in Indonesia

Prepare for a bit of a rant, because I feel one coming on.

Australian blogger Tim Blair has a good collections of links with reactions to, and commentary about, the terrorist bombing of the Australian Embassy in Indonesia that killed at least eleven (including children) and wounded hundreds.

The Aussies have their own internal schism over how to deal with the Global War on Terror, as do many other countries.  So far, a majority of the Australian public is hanging tough — those who "get it" still outnumber those who'd practice appeasement and "sensitive diplomacy."  The Australians have been incredibly stalwart allies of the United States for decades and decades, in times thick and thin.  What incredible friends they are — and what an incredible, brave, robust people they are!  Americans are privileged to stand by them, and lucky to have them stand by us, yet again.

But this event should remind us — as it does, so very painfully, them — that this is not about a terrorist war on America.  This is indeed a terrorist war on civilization — global terrorists, fighting a global war, against civilization everywhere on the globe.  The targets are, quite literally, everyone who is, or wants to be, civilized — including the nacent indigenous forces for democracy in Iraq and countless other countries that may still be struggling on the cusp between civilization and barbarism.

John Kerry went out of his way to insult and disparage our allies again this week.  As I've written before (for instance, here and here and here), I think that drives me up the wall more than anything else he's said or done throughout his campaign, but damned if he doesn't keep doing it!  Damned if he's not beyond even the power of blunt-speaking Gen. Tommy Franks to shame!  Speaking mockingly this week of Iraq:

"When they talk about a coalition — that's the phoniest thing I ever heard," Mr. Kerry said of the current array of foreign soldiers deployed in Iraq. "You've got 500 troops here, 500 troops there, and it's American troops that are 90 percent of the combat casualties, and it's American taxpayers that are paying 90 percent of the cost of the war.

It makes me want to grab him by the collar and say, "Look, Bozo, this isn't all about Iraq and Afghanistan.  Look Down Under, where a country with a fraction of our wealth and resources is holding down the fort — taking a very active role, in terms military, diplomatic, and economic — in building and maintaining and defending civilization for a huge quandrant of the globe!  They're not our tools, they're not bought or coerced or bribed.  They see the same dangers we do; they know they're targets just like we are; and they're acting on a mature and independent self-interest in self-preservation that they've also taken the trouble to coordinate with our own."

Part of what bothers me is that these insults are just so gratuitous.  Kerry could attack Bush for failing to secure greater support — diplomatic, manpower, financial — without slurring those countries who are providing support or belittling their current efforts.  He could stick to his routine about how under a Kerry administration, everyone will like the U.S. better and thus will try harder and cooperate more.  Personally, I don't buy any of that, but that's what his main sales pitch is — and he could make it without slurring anyone but Bush.  But he doesn't.  "Phoniest thing I've ever heard" — that's not accusing Bush merely of ineffective diplomacy, it's accusing Bush of fraud, in which the allies who are helping America must be complicit.

I am just overwhelmed by the incredible irony of John Forbes Kerry lecturing Dubya on being the stereotypical "Ugly American" when Kerry himself is so arrogant and so blind and — well, I won't say "un-American," but I will say, so ugly.  He at least mouths the words to honor our own troops' sacrifices, but then that same mouth utters these slurs against the troops who fight with ours, and who also fight — bravely and on their own — for the same causes for which our troops are fighting. 

It makes me very angry.  Can you tell?