Free Republic

Six months ago I ventured in this space that the Democratic position on the war in Iraq was the single most critical question in U.S. politics. The statement made on Monday by John Kerry is the climactic event in this matter. Sen. Kerry said that notwithstanding all that is known now, whatever have been the developments in the past year, if he had it to do again, he'd vote as he did: in favor of giving the president the power he requested, before going on to wage war in Iraq. Kerry made this faintly more tolerable to the anti-war segment...

On Iraq and many other key foreign policy issues -- such as the Israeli- Palestinian dispute -- what's more notable about the 2004 campaign is how much the two men appear to agree. "In effect, the Kerry position is just, 'We're going to do a more efficient job of running Iraq than this administration.' " "Kerry represents a more traditional internationalist who is certainly interested in maintaining U.S. power in the world but is not prepared to use the kind of ruthless military attack that has come to characterize Bush's drive toward empire," Bennis said.