“Allies” on the take and no Plan “B”

The Washington Post has “More Debate Questions” for Bush and Kerry tonight. As might be expected, the questions for President Bush focus on his record. But I find it remarkable that, with less than a month to go before the election, we’re still (still!) wondering just what the heck John Kerry would do:

Our chief question about Sen. John F. Kerry remains, much as it was before the first debate, about his conception of the scope of the war on terrorism and the proper response to it. Last week Mr. Kerry reiterated a narrow view, describing Iraq as a diversion from "the real war on terror in Afghanistan against Osama bin Laden." If Mr. Kerry means by this that the Bush administration shifted too many resources too quickly out of Afghanistan, that's a reasonable argument. But surely capturing Osama bin Laden and routing the remaining al Qaeda leadership would not be the end of Islamic terrorism. What, then, does Mr. Kerry think the "war on terror" means, and how best can it be fought?

Surely the “allies on our side” argument has been shot to hell by the Duelfer report, a point that did not escape Stephen Hayes writing in the Weekly Standard:

The Duelfer report's revelations about the conduct of our allies before the war is similarly damaging to Kerry. The Massachusetts senator has long argued that if we had only conducted more and better diplomacy we might have persuaded intransigents like France, Germany, Russia, and China to support the war. And one of the key elements of his much-touted "plan" to fix Iraq is that a President Kerry could secure more help from these allies.

The U.N. report reveals these claims as pipe dreams. Those blocking our efforts to disarm Saddam were in many cases the ones doing business with him. According to the report this list may include a former French Interior Minister and aides to French President Jacques Chirac, as well as associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.N. official in charge of the corrupt Oil-for-Food program, Benon Sevan, may have helped himself to the money. The goal of the French and the Russians--they stated it publicly in the late 1990s--was that the sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq be lifted.

Are these the allies who will save the day in Iraq? Are these the nations who might administer John Kerry's "global test?"