WASHINGTON, July 18: Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2004, on Wednesday described the Bush administration’s Middle East policies as “amateur hour” and said its tough rhetoric against Iraq was a huge mistake.
In a wide-ranging blast at President George W. Bush’s conduct of foreign policy, Kerry also questioned some military strategies in the Afghan war and said the administration had too often failed to engage foreign governments and articulate a global role for the United States.
“I think the administration has behaved quite clumsily and haphazardly on a lot of foreign policy fronts,” Kerry said in an interview with editors and reporters.
Kerry, who has taken the lead among Democrats in breaking out of the party’s post-Sept 11 reluctance to criticize Bush on foreign affairs, said he believed a power struggle in the Bush team was at least partially responsible for mixed signals sent to both Israel and the Palestinians.
“It’s a most incredible display in my judgment of a kind of amateur hour, and the reason is there is no one person in charge,” Kerry said. “Colin Powell is not being allowed to be secretary of state, in my judgment. They restrain him.”
Kerry also questioned the tough message directed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, accused by Bush of belonging to an “axis of evil” and developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Bush has said he will use all available tools to unseat the Iraqi leader.
“The rhetoric has been a huge mistake, the rhetoric is way ahead of the possibilities,” Kerry said. “Frankly, that just makes us look silly and strengthens him to some degree.”
EVIDENCE AGAINST SADDAM: Kerry said the United States should be more aggressive in spelling out its evidence against Saddam and selling the rest of the world on its approach to Iraq.
“If we just decide to go in, without a lot of precursor steps, I think we create enormous downstream problems,” he said. “You’ve got to be smarter about this. He may be the focus of all your attention but you may be far better off not giving any hint of that.”
Kerry, who won a Silver Star while serving on a river patrol boat in Vietnam but opposed the war after returning home, praised the performance of US troops in Afghanistan but questioned the military’s decision to use Afghan troops to close the noose on Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network at the battle in the Tora Bora region.
“The goal, as stated by the president, was to kill al Qaeda and capture them and get Osama bin Laden dead or alive,” he said. “We did not kill Al Qaeda, so let’s not pretend. They are more dangerous dispersed than they were corralled and cornered in the Tora Bora mountains.”
Kerry said he would decide on a possible presidential run by early next year. He said he was going through the mental process of envisioning a presidential campaign, “trying to wear it, trying to put it on and feel what is involved.”
He acknowledged the “logic” of the widespread view that he was almost certain to run this time after considering and then passing up the race in 2000.
“There is a sense of timing about it. I think I have something to offer this time,” he said. “I’ve been very encouraged. Every state I’ve gone to, there has been a very positive, warm response, people are signing up.”
Kerry has been among the most active of the half-dozen or so prospective Democratic candidates in traveling the country to raise money and hitting key early primary states to woo supporters.
Kerry said he would be willing to eliminate future tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans adopted in Bush’s $1.3 trillion, 10-year tax cut if it appeared the money would be needed for crucial domestic programs such as homeland security.—Reuters