NEW YORK (AP) – Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry yesterday assailed President Bush’s foreign policy as “inept, reckless,” as he proposed sending tens of thousands more troops to Iraq and naming special envoys to the Mideast and the Islamic world.
In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Massachusetts senator said the Bush administration has ruined international relationships with its global strategy and suggested that greater diplomacy would encourage allies to help in Iraq, perhaps with more troops. Kerry also warned against allowing the U.S. election calendar to dictate postwar rebuilding.
“It would be a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle to speed up the process simply to lay the groundwork for a politically expedient withdrawal of American troops,” he said.
If elected, Kerry said he would convene a summit of world leaders, perhaps including the Pope and the Dalai Lama, to determine how to “build bridges to the Islamic world.” The administration, he said, has made nothing more than a “casual effort.”
Jim Dyke, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, rejected Kerry’s speech as an “attempt to buoy his sinking poll numbers.” Latest surveys show Kerry in the single digits in Iowa and trailing rival Howard Dean in New Hampshire.
Kerry said he would appoint special envoys to the Middle East and elsewhere, hoping to tap former commanders in chief such as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or even the current president’s father, George H.W. Bush. Prior to the speech, Kerry spoke to Carter and Clinton.
“There’s great talent out there, with people who’ve been through this,” Kerry said during a question-and-answer session after his speech. “The United States has always been the leverage, if you will, the broker of goodwill to try to bring the parties together.”
Kerry also suggested former Secretary of State James Baker as a possible envoy, a proposal that drew criticism from rival Wesley Clark, who called the notion of using the Republican who played a role in the 2000 Florida recount “offensive.”
In a quick retort, the Kerry campaign said national security should trump party politics in light of the threats the nation faces.
Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, hopes to tap resentment felt by many Democratic primary voters toward Bush’s policies on the Middle East, terrorism and Iraq. He is battling the rise of Dean, an anti-war candidate who Kerry claims offers more anger than solutions.
Kerry backed the president’s war resolution against Iraq, then struggled for months to explain the stance to Democratic voters angry with the pre-emptive strike.
He told the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday that if he were president, he would have eventually found support from the Germans, French and other allies that Bush did not have. Patience was key, he said.
“I think after you’ve asked people four or five times publicly whether they’re ready, you begin to isolate them rather than them isolating you, which is precisely what this administration allowed to happen,” Kerry said. “That’s why I call it inept, and that’s why I call it reckless.”
His foreign policy adviser, Rand Beers, told reporters that Kerry believes “tens of thousands” of new troops are needed there to secure the nation. He did not rule out U.S. troops being in that mix, but said the senator’s emphasis on coalition building would make an international force more attainable.
On terrorism, Kerry pledged to launch a “name and shame” campaign against people, banks and governments that finance terrorists. He singled out Saudi Arabia and its interior minister, Prince Nayef, and said he would hold the nation accountable if it doesn’t do more to crack down on terrorism.
