Kerry prepares for Middle East tour

[ProSense]

Kerry prepares for Middle East tour

By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | December 12, 2006

Senator John F. Kerry plans to leave Wednesday for a nine-day trip through Iraq and five other Middle Eastern nations, as he seeks to hone a regional approach to ending the Iraq war while entering the final stage of his deliberations about another run for president.

Kerry said he hopes to use the regional trip, his first there in nearly year, to meet with political leaders and US troops in Iraq about solutions to the Iraq conflict. His meetings will include a session with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a country that the Iraq Study Group recommended should be included in direct talks about the future of Iraq.

"The Mideast policy as a whole is in tatters, and the situation is getting more dangerous, and there is a lot that's at play," said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. "This is the most compelling and important issue on the table today: the war on terror, how it would more properly be fought."

In addition to Iraq and Syria, Kerry will visit Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel, and he will meet with the head of state in all of those countries. He said he plans to venture outside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad to talk to US troops stationed in more volatile parts of the country, including the Sunni Triangle.

The trip comes amid intensifying debate in Washington over the future of Iraq, spurred by the Iraq Study Group's long-awaited report last week.

The White House announced Tuesday that President Bush will lay out his course of action in a public speech in January.

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[janx]

1. Good for Senator Kerry!

He can then bring solid information back to the new Senate in January. This is very good timing.

[Tom Joad]

2. It would be really good if Kerry would go into Palestine, and not just listen

to Prime Minister Abbas, but also common folks, and hear the problems they are enduring. The severe humanitarian crisis brought on by cruel sanctions, the Wall and other obstacles to their free movement, the problem of growing Israeli settlements on their land, that makes the West Bank very difficult for a Palestinian to navigate.

Jimmy Carter has done a great service by bringing this to our attention, the great oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel. Since this is US-sponsored, he would do well to find out this information first hand... and listen to Palestinians themselves.

[babylonsister]

4. Tom Joad, I agree. I really like Kerry, but wonder about

all politicians who seem to vote in lock step. I have never pegged Senator Kerry as one, so I too wish he would either go to Palestine and Beirut or anywhere in the area, or tell us honestly why Israel has earned the right to be supported.

[KKKarl is an idiot]

7. Can you imagine the spin from Fox News

They are already going giddy with the supposed meeting in Europe between the Democratic party leaders & Hamas.

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/12/12/in_effort_to_smear_democrats_fox_hosts_report_unsubstantiated_rumor_as_news.php#more

[wisteria]

3. This is a dangerious trip. He plans on venturing outside the Green Zone.

I know of no other Senator who has done this. He wants to see and visit with our soldiers first hand. I will pray he has a productive and safe trip.

[babylonsister]

5. Yes, it is, but there's a post somewhere on DU where Dodd is the

'go to' guy, sounds like he's 'in charge'.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. Kerry always likes to mix with the troops

he'll have an especially good time on this trip thanks to the negative publicity of his joke, but I am sure he will more than make up for it.

[blm]

8. What media won't share is that Pres. of Syria TRUSTS Kerry and has shared his ideas

for how to handle the regional situation and what he could do from his leadership to help the situation, but BUSH refused to meet with him when he returned to learn what Al Assad told Kerry candidly and personally.

Kerry's first meeting with him was in Jan 2005. Why didn't the press corps tell the people back then how Bush's stubbornness and refusal to hear the most important and needed information about the region was the real danger to this country?

It really took a category 5 hurricane to expose the presscorps protecting the emperor for their own nakedness.