A secret plan
In an interview with the Ron Fournier of the Associated Press yesterday, John Kerry promised to withdraw American soldiers from "the death zone" in Iraq during his first term while preserving American interests there: "Kerry could back antiabortion judge."
Both to Fournier and to me Kerry's Iraq "plan" sounds a little like the secret plan Richard Nixon campaigned on in 1968 to resolve America's involvement in the Vietnam war:
If elected, Kerry said, he will see that virtually all US combat troops will be out of Iraq, away from what he called "the death zone," by the end of his first term...Matters are sufficiently complex in Iraq that Kerry's commitment to withdraw American forces must necessarily have harmed American interests there already. It's that simple.The message is clear, folks," he said. "We're going to make America stronger at home by being fiscally responsible, investing in health care and education, becoming energy independent, and we're going to make ourselves stronger in the world by restoring America's respect and influence with a better foreign policy. It's that simple."
Kerry said Bush has damaged relations with allies to the point that only a new president can repair them. The problem is evident in Iraq, said the decorated Vietnam War veteran. "It will not be like Vietnam," Kerry said. "I will get our troops home from Iraq with honor and with the interests of our country properly protected."
How soon? "It will not take long to do what is necessary," he said. "I'm not going to give you a specific date, but I'll tell you that I have a plan, and I will put that plan in place."
Republican Richard M. Nixon used similar language during the 1968 presidential race, but the war dragged on for years after his election. Kerry said his goal would be achieved in his first term.
The folks at RealClearPolitics have posted a column by Newsweek's Richard Wolffe that disparages Kerry's pretensions on Iraq while defending Kerry against the charge that he harbors a Nixonian "secret plan": "Kerry's secret plan to end the war." Wolffe writes:
[F]or John Kerry, the struggle to talk about Iraq seems as hard as the administration’s struggle to find an exit strategy. He hedges and he dodges; he issues caveats and subordinate clauses. Kerry’s underlying suggestion is that he thinks he can turn the war around. But he finds it unusually difficult to say so in simple terms, without offering ammunition to his rivals.Perhaps Kerry's "secret plan" is to deploy the charm of his personality to transform enemies of America's interests in Iraq into instruments of American policy. This particular "secret plan" promises to evoke memories of the "credibility gap" made famous by the administration of the president Richard Nixon succeeded.It has been only two months since Kerry entangled himself in the notion that the rest of the world was yearning for his victory over Bush. “I’ve been hearing it, I’ll tell you. The news, the coverage in other countries, the news in other places,” Kerry told a Florida fundraiser. “I’ve met more leaders who can’t go out and say it all publicly, but boy, they look at you and say, you gotta win this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy, things like that.” Those comments have become fodder for a thousand Republican punchlines, endlessly repeated by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as part of their standard speech on the stump.
Kerry made a similar assertion last week, when asked how he would overcome international opposition to sending troops to Iraq. Kerry said that even countries that have publicly ruled out sending troops to Iraq—like France—would reverse their positions with a new president. Citing “conversations” with “senators and other diplomats”, Kerry told reporters at his campaign headquarters. “Given the right statesmanship and leadership, it’s possible to have a very different level of participation. I know what the public statements are today. It doesn’t deter me one iota from saying what I say based on private conversations.”...
Some critics suggest that the Massachusetts senator is echoing Nixon’s “secret plan” to end the Vietnam war. However Kerry’s plan is anything but secret. He wants a NATO mission in Iraq, and has described that mission down to the sectors and operations that could come under its control. He has outlined not just his desire to include the United Nations in Iraq’s future, but the title of the person leading its work: a high commissioner, no less. And he wants a “massive training effort” to rebuild Iraq’s security forces. You can disagree with Kerry’s policy, or even dismiss it as similar to Bush’s approach. But you can’t call it a secret.
