Call it Sen. John Kerry’s coming out party. At long last Kerry has adopted a coherent position on the war in Iraq - and thrown in his lot with the Howard Dean/bring the troops home now wing of his party.
“It is essential to acknowledge that the war itself was a mistake,” Kerry told some 2,000 liberals assembled for the “Take Back America” conference in Washington, D.C. “It was wrong and I was wrong to vote for that Iraq war resolution.”
Kerry is nothing if not brilliant at telling people what he thinks they want to hear. And if that means pandering to a group so to the left of the mainstream that they would boo and attempt to shout down Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), then so be it.
“I have to just say it: I do not think it is a smart strategy either for the president to continue with his open-ended commitment,” Clinton said, “nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain. I do not agree that that is in the best interest of our troops or our country.”
It was then that many in the crowd chanted, “Bring the troops home, now.”
Yep, they’re now John Kerry’s people. And we truly hope they’ll all be very happy together.
Kerry has launched his back to the future-style campaign, drawing parallels between Vietnam, which he protested after returning from service there, and Iraq.
“And as in Vietnam, we have stayed and fought and died even though it is time for us to go,” Kerry said. “It was right to dissent from a war in 1971 that was wrong and could not be won. And now, in 2006, it is both a right and an obligation for Americans to stand up to a president who is wrong today.”
Kerry spoke those words even as President Bush was looking Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the eye and promising “when America gives its word, America keeps its word.”
Kerry insists he wants a “hard and fast deadline” for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. He is sponsoring a resolution proposing that nearly all of those troops be withdrawn by the end of this year.
Such a resolution would be a betrayal of all this nation has ever stood for, of all our troops have fought and died for. But most of all it would be a clear signal to insurgents, terrorists and the enemies of freedom everywhere that when the going gets tough there will always be an American politician advocating abandonment of this nation’s commitment. This time around it’s John Kerry.
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