OH, KERRY, HOLD ON...

I've finally gotten around to rereading would-be president John Kerry's op-ed in the Times on Iraq. His multilateralist critique is legitimate - its important to give the international community, our allies (NATO, not our "allies" such as Saudi Arabia) and Congress the opportunity to get on board. The proper response to the disfunctional state of the U.N. is not to ignore it, but to make a major push to reform it. And multilateralism is most essential for post-war nation-building. However, the strong points of Kerry's argument are undercut by his distressing lack of a broader vision. The problem is that Kerry sees regime change not an intrinsically worthy goal, but as the "ultimate weapons-enforcement mechanism"? Does Kerry really believe that renewed inspections is a long-term solution? How does he intend to deal with Hussein's continued support for terror? And most importantly, how does he propose to reshape the region to disperse the current toxic environment of corrupt regimes and Islamist resistance? Alas, the search for a coherent Democratic alternative to the Bushies foreign policy continues.