Okay, that does it!! I demand HuffPost release an entire transcript of its interview w/ John Kerry!

[beachmom]

Maybe I was too tough on JK last week, but this headline is OBVIOUSLY misleading. I mean unbelievable.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/john-kerry-uptick-in-iraq_n_192040.html

Here is the headline:

John Kerry: Uptick in Iraq Violence Was Expected, Could Get Worse

Now go read the article. That is NOT what he said. More interesting is this:

Considered at one point to be a candidate for Secretary of State, Kerry has instead managed to make an imprint on Obama's foreign policy from his perch atop the foreign relations committee. On the issue of the day, his support for an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's detainee interrogation techniques could impact whether such investigations actually taking place. "I think it is a mistake to do it in Congress," he says. "I think it should be done by some quiet and eminent person conduct an investigation and release a report on it."

On a broader level, Kerry has been a voice of cautious (or realistic) support for the White House's policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, pushing the need for improved governance in the former and greater diplomatic and economic resources in the latter.

His viewpoint of counter-terrorism operations, in particular, has been meticulously detailed since he laid out the policy proposal way back during the dog days of the 2008 presidential campaign. The outline is similar to that which Kerry advocated during the '04 election and for which he was ridiculed by his GOP opponents. But with the public of a slightly different political mindset when it comes to counter-terrorism operations, an approach that doesn't lean entirely on the military but pushes for better intelligence and a stronger law enforcement component is no longer derided as insufficiently macho.

"Those statements were true then and they were true today," Kerry said of this once-lambasted call to make terrorism more of a law enforcement issue. "The people who fought it displayed the kind of ignorance and arrogance of our policy that has gotten us into a lot of trouble. The fact is had they been more honest about it rather than exploiting the war, we would be in a better place today. So I stand by my comments. A military component and military actions are needed at times. But the key to being victorious is to have the best intelligence in the world."

I thought Obama ruled out the Truth Commission? If instead they do something similar like what Kerry outlined above, that might work. The point is investigations. I think only after all the truth comes out should we discuss prosecutions. But, as I have reiterated before, ruling out prosecutions at the outset is a bad idea.

[TayTay]

1. It's also a boring headline

John Kerry: Uptick in Iraq Violence Was Expected, Could Get Worse

Ah, who hasn't said this?

[wisteria]

2. First, thank you for posting this new article. I hadn't seen it.

Second, I have seen him provide a similar answer to the question regarding torture investigations and personally, I think this is the only way to go with no politics involved in the review and outcome. And, as for this article, the title is misleading and as Tay said, who hasn't said this about Iraq?