KERRY TELLS TIME HE WILL ‘ALMOST CERTAINLY’ SEND HIS OWN TEAM TO IRAQ

drudgereport.com ^ | Sun Mar 07 2004 09:07:19 ET | drudge

[ThreePuttinDude]

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KERRY TELLS TIME HE WILL ‘ALMOST CERTAINLY’ SEND HIS OWN TEAM TO IRAQ TO ASSESS SITUATION ‘WITHIN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS OR MONTHS’

Sun Mar 07 2004 09:07:19 ET

Mentions Sending Senate Colleague Joseph Biden, Chief Campaign Foreign Policy Adviser Rand Beers and Longtime Senate Aide Nancy Stetson

White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett says Kerry’s Mission Reveals His Attacks are ‘Based on Politics, Not Facts’

New York – Senator John Kerry tells TIME that he “almost certainly” will send a team to Iraq “within the next few weeks or months” to help him formulate his Iraq policy positions. “I may ask some Democratic colleagues and experts to go to Iraq and make this assessment so I have a strong basis on which to proceed,” he tells TIME’s Perry Bacon, Lisa Beyer and Karen Tumulty on his campaign plane from Washington, DC to Florida last week. He mentions Senate colleague Joseph Biden, chief campaign foreign policy adviser Rand Beers and longtime Kerry Senate aide Nancy Stetson. But, says White House communications director Dan Bartlett, Kerry’s “mission to finally understand what is happening in Iraq reveals once again that [his] attacks are based on politics, not facts.”

Whatever approach he embraces will have a better chance of success, Kerry argues, because he knows how to play well with others, TIME’s Nancy Gibbs reports. The interview with Kerry is part of TIME’s Special Report on Iraq One Year Later (on newsstands Monday, March 8).

When asked by TIME about President Bush’s hate of the word ‘nuance’ and his opinion of the word, Kerry says, “Some of these issues are very complicated and deserve more than a simplistic this or that,” says Kerry. As he speaks, Kerry heats up, grows loud, almost angry. His message shifts: Don’t for a moment think all that worldliness means he has no convictions. Or that he is weak or a waffler or a political opportunist, TIME reports.

“I don’t think war is nuanced at all. I think how you take a nation to war is the most fundamental decision a President makes,” Kerry says, “and there’s nothing nuanced at all about keeping your promises. There is nothing nuanced about exhausting remedies that give you legitimacy and consent to go to war. And I refuse ever to accept the notion that anything I’ve suggested with respect to Iraq was nuanced. It was clear. It was precise. It was, in fact, prescient. It was ahead of the curve about what the difficulties were. And that is precisely what a President is supposed to be. I think I was right, 100% correct, about how you should have done Iraq.”

Kerry says he learned from Vietnam, where he served as a swift boat commander, that you go to war only if all other options fail and that you had better make certain you are prepared to do what it takes to secure peace afterward. Whatever his criticisms of Bush’s war, Kerry says he is committed to finishing the mission. “My exit strategy is success,” he says, “a viable, stable Iraq that can contribute to the stability and peace in the Middle East.”

Among the first things Kerry would do as President, says Sandy Berger, who was a National Security Adviser under Bill Clinton and has consulted with Kerry on the subject, would be to tell the American people to “put aside your misgivings or whatever you thought about this in the beginning. We cannot fail now.”

Developing...

[ThreePuttinDude]

My first thought on all of this is "Who in the H3ll is going to finance your little study Johnny??

The libs are always worried about "Who's going to pay for things".... now we want to know just that johnnie

[billorites]

Dude!
I'm with ya!

[xrp]

Oh boy. Maybe he should wait for the election before he acts as CinC.

[bushfamfan]

I think it will be important for the President, his campaign, the GOP-all of them- to point out that Kerry should explain why he VOTED AGAINST THE GULF WAR WITH UN APPROVAL, INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT HE SUPPOSEDLY IS ALL FOR. He will have to explain the inconsistencies with the '91 Gulf War vote. He is really whacked out. It will be up to the President to get him on this blatant hypocrisy.

[rintense]

...this or that,

He STILL can't make up his mind!!!! Flip-flopper. LOL.

Kerry is the absolute worst thing that could happen to the United States- and Iraq.

[jla]

These people have no scruples. The shear audacity this man, who has not yet been named the Democratic nominee, to infer that the official United States policy towards Iraq is somehow flawed.

I can imagine that things would be different if Kerry was evere elected POTUS. He'd have al-Qaida members sitting in on Cabinet meetings and nat'l security briefings so to better state their views which we have obviously not sought.

No wonder Mrs. Heinz always looks like she's been sedated. I couldn't blame the woman for popping a few tranquilizers if I had to be around this kook all the time.

[dead]

Don’t for a moment think all that worldliness means he has no convictions. Or that he is weak or a waffler or a political opportunist, TIME reports.

Well, if TIME says we can't, I guess we can't.

[CheezyD]

Why doesn't the "hero" go himself? Bush went. Rumsfeld went.

[John W]

I searched in vain for any question to Kerry from the media suck-ups such as Karen Tumulty reagarding the legality of such an "expedition" by Kerry's sockpuppets.Apparently an unimportant minor detail.

[anniegetyourgun]

And why doesn't he have an Iraq policy now? After all, he continually claims he knows better....

[cricket]

He STILL can't make up his mind!!!! Flip-flopper. LOL.

. . .weeks or months. . .

[cynicom]

As we speak, the "team" is in fact drafting their findings after they visit Iraq.

[Dutch Boy]

Kerry doesn't have the honesty to go. If he went he would see the progress. His only option would be to focus only on the problems. He would totals miss the good things. I wonder if Boston could make it through the same?

[jla]

Just when you thought Kerry couldn't sink any lower.
This latest episode reeks of that repugnant odor we've all come to know as whiff of clinton.

[niteowl77]

How nice of the 'rats to establish a parallel government.

[proud American in Canada]

"But, says White House communications director Dan Bartlett, Kerry’s “mission to finally understand what is happening in Iraq reveals once again that [his] attacks are based on politics, not facts.”

I'm not sure this was the best and strongest reply to the complete audacity of Kerry's plan.

[Jaxter]

"Kerry says he learned from Vietnam, where he served..."

Kerry was in Vietnam??

[KellyAdmirer]

Kerry says he learned from Vietnam, where he served as a swift boat commander, that you go to war only if all other options fail and that you had better make certain you are prepared to do what it takes to secure peace afterward.

This guys is officially a joke, stuck in time as the captain of a swift boat, making decisions today based on what happened to him in a brief war-time experience 35 years ago. I know war is hell, but for Kerry, it seems to be some kind of endless purgatory.

[cricket]

“My exit strategy is success,” he says, “a viable, stable Iraq that can contribute to the stability and peace in the Middle East.”

Bush was 'there' from the beginning; failure was never an option; unlike the failure hoped for; planned for by Kerry and Left et al.

Surely there are quotes from Kerry; not just Hillary - on this.

[jla]

Kerry is the absolute worst thing that could happen to the United States- and Iraq.

He is a disgusting and beguiling person. ("man" would be an inappropriate term in describing Kerry)
Boy, I hope Dubya smacks this punk hard & often!