Kerry takes issue on Iraq, albeit quietly

With all the violence going on in Iraq today and the attention being given to the 9-11 commission, it seems imperative that Kerry not appear to be taking advantage of the situation. Since Bush's lies and poor planning for war in Iraq seem to be coming home to roost, there is no need for Kerry to get too deeply involved to the point where he is distracted from his economic message of the week. This is a delicate balancing act and so far it seems that Kerry is playing it well. From the Washington Post:

I think they wanted to get the troops out, get the transfer out of the way as fast as possible without regard to the stability of Iraq," Kerry told reporters after a campaign rally here. "It is a mistake to set an arbitrary date and I hope that date has nothing to do with the elections here in the United States."

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee criticized the president for what he said was a failure to seize earlier opportunities to bring the United Nations and more international allies into the U.S.-led coalition and said the administration needs to "get off [its] high horse and show a little humility" to attract that assistance now to ensure stability in Iraq.

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Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution said Kerry, in contrast to Dean, has set the right tone. "Anything that goes right goes to their benefit," he said of the administration. "But anything that goes wrong is due to their action. What we've seen in the last 12 months is incompetence following incompetence, arrogance following arrogance, ignorance following ignorance. Kerry is right to point that out, quietly as he has."