Still wondering

It’s nothing short of remarkable that, a week away from Election Day, Americans still have no idea what is John Kerry’s position on Iraq. From Sebastian Mallaby in today’s Washington Post “Iraq: Does Kerry Have a Plan?”

If neither foreign nor Iraqi troops come to the rescue, a President Kerry might face a choice: Take back his election talk of bringing soldiers home, or take back his election talk of winning. Kerry is a responsible leader surrounded by a tough foreign policy team, and in the past few days I've edged closer to the view that he would not abandon Iraq prematurely. But if his team really did present the Europeans with a Biden-style ultimatum -- you get into Iraq or we get out -- it would risk creating a dynamic that would lead to a U.S. withdrawal and terrifying anarchy.

In other words, Kerry knows that all his blather about convincing allies is election-year demagoguery, but getting elected is the only “plan” he truly believes in.

[Cross-posted on Blogs for Bush]