Iraq's No Quagmire, Kerry Admits ==but what do you expect from a C student? Still,
BY JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 4:15 p.m.
The president of the United States is speaking on Iraq this evening at Fort Bragg, N.C., and some dude called John Kerry*, who is not president, showed up on the op-ed page of the New York Times this morning to tell the president what to say. Which just goes to prove, the average voter is smarter than the editors of the New York Times op-ed page.
Let's start with what we like about the Kerry piece, which is the penultimate sentence:
If Mr. Bush fails to take these steps, we will stumble along, our troops at greater risk, casualties rising, costs rising, the patience of the American people wearing thin, and the specter of quagmire staring us in the face
This is not a graceful piece of writing, but what do you expect from a C student? Still, give Kerry credit for acknowledging that the "quagmire" is a mere "specter"--i.e., a figment of the imagination. Kerry first rose to political prominence as an advocate of U.S. defeat in Vietnam, and we're glad to see that, unlike some of his fellow Democratic senators, he acknowledges Iraq is not Vietnam redux.
Still, anyone who wants America to win in Iraq should be glad Kerry lost last year's election, for although he talks of wanting victory, it sounds as though he's more eager to get out. He says "the president must . . . announce immediately that the United States will not have a permanent military presence in Iraq," and he seems to want the U.S. to threaten to cut and run more quickly: |
