What I wish Kerry would say

Lincoln Journal Star Online

"In a dramatic departure from the Bush administration, Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter says he now believes the U.S. military assault on Iraq was unjustified. "

Rather than focus on the subtlety of the fact that the vote was a resolution to authorize the president to use force if he deemed necessary, I really wish that Kerry would simply make his case by being straightforward. Most of his subtlety is lost on the majority of americans who are either too simple or too busy to bother with parsing his words. Additionally, he is playing too much to the rabid war supporters, amongst us who think that Dubyas take-no-prisoners, damn the torpedos, "bring it on", cowboy-like attitude is "a good thing(tm)". He hasn't a prayer of reaching out to them in the first place.

Depending on which polls you read, somewhere between 55-60% of registered voters now believe that the pre-emptive war in Iraq was not worth the costs in american lives and our standing in the world community. Kerry should be "sensitive" to that sentiment that seems to grow with each passing day as the body count rises and the continued occupation of Iraq sows the seeds of future Bin Ladens and Mohamed Attas.

I'm certain that Kerry fears that changing his position at this time would only serve as fodder for the right-wingnuts to paint him with the flip-flopper brush. But, if you ask me, the majority of americans would likely see that change in position in a more positive light as it would give them hope that a change in leadership would improve the prospects for light at the end of the tunnel that is Iraq.

What he should do is face the nation and say: look, I realize now that my position as to whether the US should have engaged in a pre-emptive war against Iraq has been muddled by my own words, which I admit were carefully chosen so that it appeared that I was both a supporter of the war (and especially our troops) and at the same time opposed to the adminsitration's inept handling of the situation from the beginning, and at each and every step of the way. I have always answered the question: "knowing what you know today, would you still have voted for the resolution?" which is an entirely different question than "knowing what you know today, would you, as president, have engaged Iraq in a pre-emptive war?". The answer to the latter question is an emphatic; No, only an idiot would have done that! I would instead have focused this country's military and intellegence resources in tracking down and bringing to justice those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks rather than some tin-pot dictator who had neither the means, nor any immenent plans, to attack the U.S. directly and was clearly uninvolved either directly or indirectly in the 9/11 attacks.