cut & run-stay the course-lie & die

[darrels joy]

Little Drummer Boy
John Kerry* appeared on "Imus in the Morning" the other day and objected to the most common characterization of his proposal for surrender in Iraq:

"Stay the course" is not a plan. And what this administration wants is to have a fake debate, as usual. Uh, they're--you hear the drumbeat on every television show from every commentator, "cut and run, cut and run, cut and run, cut and run." That's their phrase. They've found their three words, they love to do that, and they're gonna try to make the elections in November a choice between "cut and run" or "stay the course." That's not the choice. My plan is not "cut and run." Their plan is "lie and die."

But Sen. Skedaddle was singing quite a different tune before the last selection. This is from a Dec. 3, 2003 Kerry speech before the Council on Foreign Relations:

I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election.

Kerry was right then to oppose a cut-and-run strategy. He is wrong now to support it, just as he was wrong then to accuse the administration of doing so.

* Who served four months as a junior officer in Vietnam and thus obviously is qualified as a military strategist.