Kerry’s Iraq Publicity Tour

Yesterday we sent Jim Geraghty over at the National Review’s TKS (The Kerry Spot) our post “Kerry Cheered in Baghdad?”. Today he posted, “Did Kerry Make His ‘Blunders’ Comment at an ‘Informal Lunch?”, using all of the citations and links found in our post, but apparently he formed a different impression. (It would have been nice if he had linked to us or even given us a hat tip – but we’ll forgive him this time)


Anyway, we disagree with Geraghty’s take on Senator Kerry’s junket to the Middle East. It would appear to us that Kerry’s purpose for his foreign tour, including his trip to Iraq, is about publicity for John Kerry. It’s about giving Kerry a platform to criticize President Bush and U.S. foreign policy. It gives him a platform to say “I told you so” in front of reporters all too eager to give Kerry positive press and slam President Bush.


Kerry’s statements from Iraq are the same as those he made during the presidential campaign and are not based upon “seeing the situation himself”. Can anyone spend two days in Iraq, or anywhere for that matter, and really understand the situation. So we will not, as Geraghty suggests, “give [Kerry] a round of applause for heading over to Iraq and seeing the situation for himself.” Kerry’s comments are not constructive and are made to advance John Kerry and not the United States.


Geraghty also says “the message you get from that headline is clear - Kerry was applauded when he decried the Bush team's blunders.” Well, first the headline said Kerry was cheered and not applauded, but either way the headline is not accurate. Nowhere, in any report of the Senator’s tour, was anyone cited as cheering or applauding Kerry in Iraq for anything. The headline gives a completely false impression. It suggests that Kerry’s negative views and comments about Iraq are being praised or lauded by some group, presumably U.S. soldiers or the Iraqi people. In our opinion, reporting of this nature is intentionally misleading and is used to undermine our effort in Iraq and President Bush’s foreign policy in general.


Finally, Geraghty says from this [the Chronicle report], it's not clear whether Kerry said "horrendous judgments" and "unbelievable blunders" in front of the troops, or in front of "a small group of reporters and representatives of nongovernmental organizations." Frankly we don’t think it matters if Kerry’s comments were in made in front of the troops or behind their backs. He made them publicly and they were reported around the world. Our troops will certainly be aware of them as will our enemies. Whose morale has Kerry been more likely to boast with his comments – the Iraqi coalition’s or the terrorists/insurgents’? Is this taxpayer funded publicity tour in the best interest of the United States? We think not. We also think as Kerry's tour progresses his true motives will become quite clear.