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...

[Ragirl]

Senator Kerry will do or say anything to get elected. "Send a group over to Iraq to help me do a flip flop on this issue without looking like it."

[jla]

You might want to hold your nose while reading this, Ronnie.

[rintense]

Me too. And the RNC had better not cave on the 9-11 in the ads cry. 22 families have written letters in support of the President and his ads.

[cricket]

"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"

In Vietnam for four months - not consecutive; would Kerry have us believe that be four months on a swift boat has given him the experience to lead a nation.

How many months spent in 'anti-America;anti-Vietnam War, activities?

[demlosers]

Waffle boy you're not making U.S. policy yet.

[cricket]

" And the RNC had better not cave on the 9-11 in the ads cry. 22 families have written letters in support of the President and his ads.:

Agree, they had better not even think about it.

Good news, is that President Bush in talk with reporters yesterday; is hanging tough and standing by the ad. It was great to hear. . .

. . .hold that thought. . .

[R. Scott]

I wonder if his team will be made up of his old VVAW buddies. It’ll probably include Taliban, Al Quida and Saddam loyalists.

click here for web site

[Thebaddog]

If you consider this election a referendum on Bush as the incumbent, and you consider Kerry's statement about staying the course essentially, the real question is why change? Kerry will be looking like a "Me too" candidate with his strategy, IMHO. Works for me.

[armyboy]

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 that we cannot fail now.”
Didn't John F'ing Kerry say last week that he would abandon the war on terror? Now he says we can't fail.
this guy flip flops on every decision he makes 3 or 4 times.

[rintense]

You know, I was just thinking... The DNC keeps saying that GWB never served in a war. Well they are completely wrong. He's Commander of our Armed Forces during the War on Terror and the war in Iraq.

He went to Ground Zero after 9-11 and stood with the firefighters and police officers, against the advice of the Secret Service.

He flew into Iraq to visit the troops in the middle of a war.

He continually leads this country against terrorism and aggression by rouge doctators...

Why and the hell doesn't someone at the RNC use this?

[cyncooper]

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.”

Um, the "American people" didn't have misgivings until the dems started lying about and undermining the clear and precise mission outlined by President Bush.

Flipper wants to say he's not nuanced but nuanced.

What a dangerous jerk.

[R. Scott]

How many months spent in 'anti-America;anti-Vietnam War, activities?

For myself:
Months spent in Viet Nam - 18.
Months spent in “anti-America;anti-Vietnam War” - 0.
Votes for Hanoi John - 0.

[AmericanMade1776]

OF COURSEEEEEEE KERRY loves the word Nuance...it comes from the French.

nuance

\Nu`ance"\, n. [F.] A shade of difference; a delicate gradation.

According to this article today

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/07/ixnewstop.html

Kerry wanted to go to France instead of Vietnam.

[AmericanMade1776]

MR NUANCE

[JLAGRAYFOX]

A vote cast for John Kerry is a vote for Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden prays every day for a Kerry victory. He cannot believe how stupid Americans are, but he loves it. In his mind he is thinking these idiots are voting for their own deaths!

[cricket]

"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.”

. . . One thing is clear, these people are best at being totally loathsome.

[White Eagle]

Kerry is sending a team to Iraq? Which side will they be on?