Senator John Kerry - Iraq
Too Little - Too Late

New York Times, April 5, 2006 in an OP ED, Senator John F. Kerry published his latest manifesto on Iraq. In it he demonstrated that he is almost as unqualified to be President as GW Bush.

Let's start with the last sentence of his article "We can put the American leadership on the side of our soldiers and push the Iraqi leadership to do what only it can do: build a democracy." After three years of bloody sectarian violence and maneuvering, Kerry still believes democracy can be planted at the end of a bayonet - he is as foolish as GW Bush - though I believe GWB is going wobbly on this concept as the body bags return and the budget for the war is busted. Our President may have to have his resolve stiffened by sitting on the knee of his favorite neocon Israeli philosopher, Anton Scharansky. Who can forget Bush and Condoleezza shamelessly peddling Scharansky's book, holding it up like Chairman Mao's little red book? Despite Scharansky's brainless, utopian theories, not one American should die for another nation's democracy; Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush do not seem to understand this. But a majority of Americans do, and now recoil at their leadership

Senator Kerry correctly concluded that the Iraqis have responded to deadlines such as, elections and turning over the provisional government. Now he has proposed that the US withdraw by 15 May if the Iraqis do not set up a functioning government. Like Bush, he tries to make the American public believe that process is progress - if you go through the process of filling the bucket and the water leaks out, all you have is an empty bucket - as of this writing, there is still no central Iraqi government. If it does finally form, you can bet the power will reside outside of it, with the militias and tribes. Failure to break the back of the militias was one of the thousand errors Condoleezza claims the US made in Iraq - My dear Condoleezza, international affairs and war are not parlor games you get to play over again

Last week SecState Rice with British counterpart Mr. Straw sat in a windowless room on cheap furniture in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone and hectored the Iraqis on forming a government - the Iraqis must have thought, IF WE FAIL, ARE YOU GOING TO INVADE US? It was almost as bad. Rice and Straw threatened to withdraw coalition troops if there is no central government soon. Some threat - the Iraqi leadership must have done cartwheels of joy and high fives after the dynamic duo departed.

Mr. Kerry supports a Dayton like peace accord as happened in Yugoslavia for Iraq. Call in all regional leaders and forcefully hammer out agreement. First, there is big difference between Iraq and Yugoslavia... For starters there was no over heated Israel/American link in the equation. There was no fanatical extra national, al Qaeda or Jihadists to bedevil the area . After the numbers of Arabs killed in the Iraq war, the US bona fides as an arbiter are tarnished. No decent Arab will forgive Fallujah or Abu Gharib. A Dayton accord at best is an interim agreement - knives are now being sharpened in Bosnia and Kosovo - the death of Milosevic in the Netherlands made a lot Serbs rethink their cooperation with NATO, of turning him over to an international tribunal - bombed bridges on the Danube have been rebuilt - and the Serb martial tribal juices are beginning to flow again - Mr. Kerry would do well to dump Mr. Holbrook as a national security advisor - he is old news and bad news. Clinton's Ambassador Holbrook's role in turning part of the Balkans over to Muslims was short sighted. By forcing the Serbs to accept Illegal Albanian immigration in Kosovo, the US now must confront the Mexican invasion of the US by the same standards or appear hypocritical.

Part of Kerry's proposal is to set a deadline for American troop withdrawal - but if the Iraqis set up a functioning government, Kerry promises to set new deadline..... but he would keep a US garrison in Iraq to train Iraqi forces..... but he would keep troops there for security back up.... but he would keep troops there to fight al Qaeda and foreign terrorists..... All this is very absurd - and pure Kerry..... he is still a flip flopper..... he learned nothing in the 2004 election that he lost. Like voting for the war, but voting against the appropriations. He now votes for troop withdrawal, but wants to keep the troops there - the guy is a real piece of work, always tied up in internal contradictions.

Ironically, Mr. Kerry notes in the article the stupidity and immorality of US military forces dying in Vietnam after the war was lost - US military leadership has stated categorically that the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily. There is nothing on the scene there that causes optimism that there will be political settlement until one faction takes all, so why does the US continue and bleed? Roll McNamara's DVD, FOG OF WAR, if you doubt my conclusions.

Mr. Kerry should have been a magician rather than a politician. He tries to fool the American people with slight of hand - it really does not work except for the people of Massachusetts..... and that, is another story. On the other hand, we have GW Bush who is driven by IN GOD WE TRUST- another form of magic, equally stupefying - appears now that GWB should change his God, for this one has failed and abandoned him - the Harpies may snatch him. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret