Our Kerry Iraq Guide: Debate tips for the Democratic nominee

Tonight's first Presidential debate will cover foreign policy, and you can be sure John Kerry will be on the attack over Iraq. Fair enough, we're all for making this election a war referendum. But as a helping hand to the Senator, we'd like to warn him to stay away from some of the lines he's been using on the stump. They could get him into trouble.

For example, we hope Mr. Kerry steers clear of his vow that, unlike President Bush, he will get the French and Germans to send forces to Iraq. This would give Mr. Bush the opening to quote Peter Struck, the German Defense Minister, who recently told Der Spiegel that "No German soldier shall enter Iraq."

Or Mr. Bush could cite Monday's article in the Financial Times: "French and German government officials say they will not significantly increase military assistance in Iraq even if John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger, is elected." Foreign Minister Michel Barnier added last week that France had no plans to send troops "either now or later." And if he wants to appear gracious, Mr. Kerry might even congratulate Mr. Bush on last week's NATO agreement to help train Iraqi military officers.

Mr. Kerry will also want to avoid his frequent claim that the U.S. has "borne nearly 90% of the casualties" and is providing 90% of the troops. On the first point, the U.S. has suffered 800 killed in action since the Iraq war began, 1,053 including non-combat deaths. Our uniformed Iraqi allies, however, have already suffered at least 750 combat deaths. And that doesn't include the recruits who've been killed by car bombs as they've waited to enlist in the police or new Iraq army. Even using, er, liberal math, this would put U.S. killed-in-action at about 50% of the...

Bush could just quote John Kerry:

SEN. KERRY: "I think the judgment of a nominee who doesn't understand that having Saddam Hussein captured will make it extraordinarily difficult to be able to beat an incumbent wartime president who captured Saddam Hussein. And let me tell you why, Tim. Saddam Hussein took us to war once before. In that war, young Americans were killed. He went to war in order to take over the oil fields. It wasn't just an invasion of Kuwait. He was heading for the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. And that would have had a profound effect on the security of the United States. This is a man who has used weapons of mass destruction, unlike other people on this Earth today, not only against other people but against his own people. This is a man who tried to assassinate a former president of the United States, a man who lobbed 36 missiles into Israel in order to destabilize the Middle East, a man who is so capable of miscalculation that he even brought this war on himself. This is a man who, if he was left uncaptured, would have continued to be able to organize the Ba'athists. He would have continued to terrorize the people, just in their minds, because of 30 years of terror in Iraq." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 1/11/04) KerryVision Archive

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