Kerry says Franco-German troops unlikely

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry conceded yesterday that he probably will not be able to convince France and Germany to contribute troops to Iraq if he is elected president.

The Massachusetts senator has made broadening the coalition trying to stabilize Iraq a centerpiece of his campaign, but at a town hall meeting yesterday, he said he knows other countries won’t trade their soldiers’ lives for those of U.S. troops.

“Does that mean allies are going to trade their young for our young in body bags? I know they are not. I know that,” he said.

Asked about that statement later, Mr. Kerry said, “When I was referring to that, I was really talking about Germany and France and some of the countries that had been most restrained.”

“Other countries are obviously more willing to accept responsibilities,” he added, as he took questions from reporters in a school yard in Tipton, Iowa.

In his continuing criticism of President Bush’s conduct of the Iraq war and its aftermath, Mr. Kerry also pounced yesterday on statements by the Bush administration’s former top civilian administrator in Iraq that more combat troops were needed in the immediate aftermath of the war in 2003.

L. Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, said in a speech Monday that when he arrived in Baghdad on May 6, 2003, “horrid” looting was going on.

“We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness,” Mr. Bremer, who is writing a book on his experiences, told the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers at a conference in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. “We never had enough troops on the ground.”

Mr. Bremer said having more troops in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would have been the “single most important change” the United States could have made.

His remarks were carried in a council press release posted Monday on its Web site.

Mr. Kerry said the speech confirmed the candidate’s charges that Mr. Bush has mismanaged Iraq.

“Today we have learned that America’s top official who was responsible for managing the Coalition Provisional Authority has acknowledged two mistakes,” Mr. Kerry said. “Paul Bremer, who was running the Coalition Provisional Authority, has admitted, we didn’t deploy enough troops to get the job done, and two, we didn’t contain the violence after Saddam Hussein was deposed.”

Mr. Kerry repeatedly cited Mr. Bremer’s remarks as he campaigned yesterday.

“Maybe he’s simply unwilling to face the truth or to share it with the American people,” Mr. Kerry said in Tipton. “The president’s stubbornness has prevented him from seeing, each step of the way, the difficulties and the ways in which we best protect our troops and best accomplish this mission.”

But the White House said Mr. Bush sided with his commanders who vouched for the force levels. And for his part, Mr. Bremer told the West Virginia meeting that he still endorsed the overall war objective of ousting Saddam, saying, “I am more than ever convinced that regime change was the right thing to do.”

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