Kerry Adrift
From The Washington Post
By Charles Krauthammer
Op-Ed
April 23, 2004
In 1952 a presidential candidate running against an administration that had gotten the United States into a debilitating and inconclusive war abroad pledged: "I will go to Korea." He won. A half-century later, a presidential candidate running against an administration that has gotten the United States into a debilitating and (thus far) inconclusive war abroad pledges: "I will go to the U.N."
Electrifying, is it not? And Democrats are wondering why their man is trailing … George Bush not just overall, but on Iraq …
"If I'm president," John Kerry said, "I will not only personally go to the U.N., I will go to other capitals." … It is the essence of his Iraq plan…
This is an Iraq policy? Never has a more serious question received a more feckless answer. Going back to the U.N.: What does that mean? … It must mean going back to the Security Council.
There are five permanent members. We are one. The British are already with us. So that leaves China, indifferent at best to our Middle East adventure … and Russia, which has opposed the war from the very beginning. …
That leaves . . . France. … Does he really believe that if he grovels before Jacques Chirac …, France will join us in a war that it has opposed from the beginning … ? …
No one can understand how, with the president being pummeled daily on the front pages …Bush nonetheless has gained over Kerry on the issue of national security.
The answer is simple: Americans are a serious people, war is a serious business, and what John Kerry is offering is simply not serious. Americans … sure as hell know that going to U.N. headquarters, visiting foreign capitals and promising lots of jaw-jaw is no plan at all. ...
[I]t would be politically suicidal to zigzag yet again on the war. After having voted no on the Persian Gulf War, yes on the Iraq war, no on the $87 billion for reconstruction, and today advocating a firm yes on finishing the job, to now reverse himself once again and advocate pulling out would be a politically fatal flip-flop. …
Kerry's political problem is that he supports Bush's Iraq objective and differs only on the means. Unfortunately for Kerry, "I will go to Turtle Bay" is not the stuff of legend. …
