Reply #32: "Wrong war, wrong time, wrong place"

[karynnj]

"It was not a war of last resort"

"He went to war without exhausting the diplomacy."

"without building a true coalition"

"without a plan to win the peace"

"the US does not go to war because it wants to go to war but because it has to go to war"

---------------------------------------------

Did you hear any of that in 2004? Someone said them ever day!!

Someone who spoke against rushing to war in January 2003. Someone who called for regime change at home when the war was still favored by 70% of the people.

These were why Kerry was called anti-war through the first half of 2004.
---------------------------------------

The media conflated
- the vote
- whether a candidate was publicly for or against going to war in March 2003 (Kerry against, Edwards for)
- how to deal with the Iraq war and the War on Terror as President.

The latter is why some people here speak of Kerry simply wanting to fight a smarter war. He gave his plan for Iraq at NYU in September 2004, spoke of no permanent bases in the debates and spoke of some soldiers withdrawing in 2005. The elements of the 2004 plan were in subsequent Kerry plans - and are what the ISG now says was right.

On the War on Terror, Kerry said it should be mostly law enforcement and intelligence and occasionally military - and that was essentially special forces.
________________________________________

If by anti-war, you mean Kerry should have had let Code Pink and ANSWER stage an antiwar rally at the convention or that Kerry should have announced that he would withdraw all troops immediately upon taking office, you really wanted Bush to have a massive land slide.

The polls from that time still exist. Even now, "out Now" doesn't get a majority. In 2004, it's not clear he could have even won Massachusetts if that were his plan.