Kerry's Iraq Predicament

By David Paul Kuhn,
CBSNews.com Chief Political Writer

But the time has come for Kerry to walk that line, say leading Democrats. And they're starting to nudge him. Kerry has begun to speak out on the subject, but with 42 American soldiers dead in Iraq this week, voters still don't know the Kerry alternative.

John Podesta, President Clinton's former chief of staff, said it's time for Kerry to tell the American public "some specific and concrete steps that he would take if he was put in office."

"I assume that there are three big options here," explained Podesta, as he rode a train home for the Easter weekend. "One is that you cut and run, and I don't think he's going to be for that because the consequences of that are awful in the country and awful in the region. Second is that he can keep doing what Bush is doing, and it not only looks like their plan hasn't worked but there is every indication it won't work."

The third option for Kerry is the one Podesta thinks the senator must take. He has to "give some sense of how you would as a practical matter bring greater both security and self-governance to at least some areas of the country as you try to stabilize others with a great international presence," Podesta said. "Perhaps the U.N. on the political side and NATO on the military side."

That's easier said then done. But, as Podesta noted, this is one Democratic campaign he doesn't have to direct. Advising Kerry on Iraq is Rand Beers' job.

"Look, we are not in Iraq, we don't have control of all the detailed information and we are not going to try and second guess the generals on the ground," said Beers, Kerry's top foreign policy adviser.

Nevertheless, Beers illustrated the message the Kerry campaign will eventually take to the American public.

"We need to move away from us as the occupation power and allow an institution like the United Nations to help this political transition to occur... we want to talk to the Arab states as well," said Beers, a former Bush anti-terrorism adviser who left the administration five days prior to the war in Iraq.

"If we are seen as the occupying power they are not going to come and participate," he continued. "If they are going to come and participate it has to be part of a much broader, international coalition and that's what we don't have today."

Kerry echoed that sentiment in a speech in Milwaukee on Thursday. He said the Bush administration "ought to be engaged in a bold, clear, startlingly honest appeal" to other countries.

Although the White House emphasizes that the coalition occupying Iraq includes more than 80 countries, Kerry asked the audience in Milwaukee, "Why is the United States of America almost alone in carrying this burden?"

Currently, 135,000 of the 160,000 soldiers in Iraq are American. U.S. troops are in the most dangerous areas. They have seen the most of their comrades' die.

A CBS News poll released Friday found that 57 percent of Americans now say the war in Iraq is not worth the cost, the largest number yet. In addition, fewer think the United States made the right decision to use military force against Iraq – down to 50 percent from 55 percent one week ago.

"If (Kerry) were president of the United States he would in fact be on the telephone, he would be in an aircraft going to NATO," Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., told CBS News. "He would be sitting down with these world leaders saying, 'Look, let's get this done.'"

In lieu of a major policy speech on Iraq, Kerry surrogates like Biden and Ted Kennedy have generally spoken for him. Kennedy said the war has estranged many U.S. allies and caused America to be "more hated in the world." In a speech this week, Kennedy ignited a firestorm of GOP criticism when he called Iraq "George Bush's Vietnam."

Kerry distanced himself somewhat from Kennedy on Friday, telling the liberal radio network Air America, "It's not Vietnam yet and it doesn't have to be Vietnam." But the Vietnam veteran - who earned three Purple Hearts and later led the veterans' opposition to the war – said that if the Bush administration continues down its current course they will "take it" in the "direction" of the Vietnam War.

Also in that interview, Kerry said the United States must "make it possible for other countries to come to the table by literally sharing responsibility, decision making, on the transformation of the government."

The Bush administration is standing by its June 30 deadline to transfer sovereignty from the interim government to Iraqis. Kerry calls this deadline "arbitrary."

But his comments on Iraq have remained piecemeal. Media interviews and side notes in stump speeches are not the same as a major policy address on the war. Adhering to the political axiom, "It's the economy, stupid," Kerry has been sticking mainly to economic issues in his recent public appearances.

Kerry's relative quiet on Iraq has a strategic component. He can continue to attack President Bush on the economy while the increasingly bad news in Iraq makes the case for Kerry. That case being: Iraq is a full-on quagmire.

That's not enough, suggests Podesta.

"Commenting on the news of the day ends up a particularly impossible situation," he said. "You've got to have a marker down there that you keep referencing back to so that there appears to be a different path that will actually support the men and women who are over there, and a path that the American public can expect might result in some results."

By David Paul Kuhn