Kerry Speech Provides Needed Details on Iraq Strategies, Duke Professor Says
Professor Bruce W. Jentleson says that Presidential candidate John Kerry's recent speech for dealing with terrorism and Iraq is a "step in the right direction"
John Kerry's attack Monday on the Bush Administration's handling of the war in Iraq offers voters a great deal more information about how Kerry would handle the conflict -- critical information that has been missing from the campaign to date, says a Duke University Middle East expert.
"The American public has had a sense of what's wrong with Bush's policy, but up to now people have not heard what's right about Kerry's policies for dealing with terrorism and Iraq," Bruce W. Jentleson said. "This is a step in the right direction."
Jentleson, director of Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, is the author of several books on U.S. foreign policy and is a former foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore and the Gore-Lieberman campaign.
In a speech Monday at New York University, Kerry criticized the Bush administration for "colossal failures in judgment" in Iraq and the war on terrorism and outlined his own proposals for dealing with the situation.
Kerry said he would seek involvement from NATO allies in securing and rebuilding Iraq and let them, as well as Iraqi contractors and workers, bid on reconstruction contracts instead of limiting that work to big U.S. corporations. To guarantee elections next year in Iraq, Kerry said the United States should recruit troops from allies for a U.N. protection force and train Iraqis to manage polling places.
"If you talk only about how bad the threat is, there is no debate," Jentleson said. "President Bush has been taking credit for staying the course, but we need to correct the course. This takes the national discussion in the right direction, a debate on whose strategy -- Kerry's or Bush's -- will be most effective."
Until now, Kerry has been "rightly criticized" for not putting forth alternate strategies, Jentleson noted. "He and his party have the potential to do a much better job than the Bush Administration in achieving some stability in Iraq and he needs to continue to articulate how his strategy differs."
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