Somehow this line has become recognized as one of the great pieces of American Rhetoric. Right up there with "I have a dream" and "Ask not what your country can do for you".
I've never understood Kerry's line. It makes no sense. You don't ask a man to die. And the war was not a mistake. We should have fought on to victory -- millions of lives would have been saved.
As I understand it we should have let the military fight the war not the diplomats.