Kerry won't get the troops out, he sounds like a hawk [View All]

[ringmastery]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56064-2004Apr6.html

As casualties and chaos mounted in Iraq, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) on Tuesday sharply questioned President Bush's decision to transfer power to the Iraqis at the end of June and suggested the decision was politically motivated by the election-year calendar.

"I think they wanted to get the troops out, get the transfer out of the way as fast as possible without regard to the stability of Iraq," Kerry told reporters after a campaign rally here. "It is a mistake to set an arbitrary date and I hope that date has nothing to do with the elections here in the United States."

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee criticized the president for what he said was a failure to seize earlier opportunities to bring the United Nations and more international allies into the U.S.-led coalition and said the administration needs to "get off high horse and show a little humility" to attract that assistance now to ensure stability in Iraq.

Kerry did not rule out advocating sending in more troops to quiet the uprising and said the United States should scrap a date-certain for transferring power. "Bottom line is we have to change the entire dynamic and that's going to require a very different form of diplomacy," he said.

Kerry has largely avoided commenting on daily developments in Iraq but stepped into the deteriorating situation on the ground there during a morning interview on National Public Radio and later on the campaign trail.