FRIEDMAN'S WISHFUL THINKING
Tom Friedman fantasizes about what Kerry would say in an interview with Tim Russert in response to a question on Iraq:

Senator Kerry: "Tim, before I answer that question, I first want to direct a message to the die-hard Baathists and Islamo-fascists who've been slaughtering Iraqis struggling to build their first democratic government. And my message to these terrorists is this: `READ MY LIPS — if I am president, I will not cut and run. I will not pull our troops out in the face of your intimidation the way Ronald Reagan fled from Lebanon.' Because that panicky retreat from Beirut in 1984 started us down this whole path, where terrorists believed if they hit us hard enough, we would run and they would get away with it. I hate how George Bush has prosecuted this war. I know I could do better. But I want every suicide bomber — from Bali to Baghdad — to understand one thing about a Kerry administration: `You can blow yourselves up from now until next Ramadan, but we'll still be in Iraq. You'll be dead, but we'll still be there. Which part of that sentence don't you understand?'

"I don't say this to be macho-man, Tim. I'm not George Bush. I say this because it's the best way to save American and Iraqi lives. You see, Tim, I identify so strongly with my band of brothers and sisters wearing the American uniform in Iraq. The best way to endanger them is to suggest to the terrorists that there is daylight between me and President Bush — that if he won't run, I will. Well, there is no daylight on ends. A Kerry administration will see that Iraqis get every chance to produce their own representative government.

"But there is daylight on means. You see, Tim, if I were president, I would insist that we have a real policy of energy conservation to enlist every American in this war, by asking each of us to choke off some of the funds going to the Islamist totalitarians. I would immediately invite the leaders of the U.N., Germany, France and NATO to Camp David to rebuild the alliance that won the cold war, so we have the staying power to win this war of ideas in the Muslim world. And I would have my secretary of state out in the Middle East regularly, arguing our case, bolstering our allies and trying to bring about a secure peace for Israelis and Palestinians.

"Oh yes, Tim, my means would be very different. Unlike the Bush team, I understand that just because you have a hammer, not every problem is a nail. It takes more than force to win a war of ideas. But on ends, Tim, let no one have any illusions: a Kerry presidency will pay any price and bear any burden to try to build a decent Iraqi regime in the heart of the Arab world. My making that commitment now is the best way to prove to the terrorists that their actions are futile, and in that way save American and Iraqi lives. Failure to make that commitment would have horrific consequences for U.S. foreign policy.

Yeah, right. Here's Kerry's real record of opinion on Iraq, which some conservatives, and some liberals, claim amounts to muddle-headed and unprincipled opportunism. Tom Friedman is an interesting character: it seems like his heart is on the left, that his identity is as a Democrat, and yet his opinions put him a lot closer to the Republican camp. Here his imagination is letting him turn Kerry into something that he is not. But I shouldn't be too hard on him: somehow I wonder how much the Bush I support in my head resembles the Bush who actually inhabits the White House. I'm an odd sort of Bush supporter. I am passionately supportive of a few Bush policies that are perhaps minor in terms of the administration's own priorities-- the liberation aspect of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the immigration reform proposal, Social Security reform (so far, only words), vouchers (which Bush backed and then backed down on)-- while I am ambivalent/indifferent towards the biggest issues of this administration, the tax cut and the war on terror per se. (And firmly opposed to the Medicare "reform," though it was perhaps politically inevitable.) Friedman and I have a lot in common.