Matthew Yglesias commented on the President’s proposal “to increase the end-strength size of the Army” and continued on to note “this is a longstanding Democratic Party idea, something backed by John Kerry.”

Beachmom, in another ‘recommended list’ diary at dailykos.com, wrote about JK’s interview with David Gregory in a piece titled ‘Kerry: More troops in Iraq will only “up the casualties and increase the violence”’.

She concluded with:

He added, after being asked what “success” is in Iraq, one simple sentence:

KERRY: Fundamental stability and transformation of responsibility to the Iraqis as fast as possible.

As fast as possible. There you have it. Now let’s see if we can get the rest of the Democrats to say it as clearly and succinctly as Senator Kerry. Or, to quote the soon to be retired commander of CENTCOM General Abizaid:

“We’ve got to get the [expletive] out.”

Let’s all pay attention now.

  A number of blogs took note of JK’s editorial, “When Resolve Turns Reckless”, in the Washington Post:

Dailykos.com had two diaries, one of which stayed at the top of the Recommended List for quite some time. EZWriter enthused about JK’s choice of words in a post titled “Kerry: Flip this White House to stop “insanity” YES! The I word!”. The subsequent discussion went on to collect almost 500 comments.

Jo Fish at the Democratic Veteran noted in a post titled “JOHN KERRY IS RIGHT … AGAIN”:

...Once again, John Kerry hits the nail on the head:

I say this to President Bush as someone who learned the hard way how embracing the world’s complexity can be twisted into a crude political shorthand. Barbed words can make for great politics. But with U.S. troops in Iraq in the middle of an escalating civil war, this is no time for politics. Refusing to change course for fear of the political fallout is not only dangerous—it is immoral.

I’d rather explain a change of position any day than look a parent in the eye and tell them that their son or daughter had to die so that a broken policy could live.

Those are the words of a leader. Not the words of a policy ignoramus whose first instinct is to protect himself politically and physically at all costs.

  <!-more-> Michael J. W. Stickings at The Reaction stated:

...John Kerry, whom I still respect and admire a great deal, has written an excellent op-ed for The Washington Post on Iraq.

...he’s been right about Iraq for a long time. And no matter who wins the Democratic nomination in ‘08, this is the position Democrats - and critics of the war generally - ought to be taking with respect to Iraq….

Make sure to read his piece in its entirety. It’s important that you do. (And then go see The Democratic Daily and Liberal Values for more.)

Pamela Leavey at The Democratic Daily put together a lengthy piece with excerpts from the op-ed as well as other recent articles containing JK’s statements regarding global troop strength and the futility of a “troop surge in Iraq”.

Ron Chusid at Liberal Values highlights his favorite excerpt and then goes onto provide several examples (with links) of JK’s consistency in delivering the same message on Iraq.

Joseph Hughes at Hughes for America simply posted an excerpt he found meaningful with the title, “He’s Exactly Right”.  

<a href=”News From Me http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2006_12_26.html#012646”>News From Me posted a link to the WaPo article with the title, “Recommended Reading”.

A post about the op-ed by globalvillage at Democratic Underground was promoted to the DU front page.

Let us know if we missed any other good references to the op-ed in the comments below.  

Robert Freedland has an interesting commentary on what’s humorous and what’s not at his blog which says, in part:

But I am not joking.

It isn’t funny what is happening in America.

Guantanamo wasn’t a joke.

Haditha doesn’t keep me up late laughing.

Abu Ghraib didn’t tickle my funny bone.

Katrina didn’t make me chuckle.

Ignoring the FISA Courts didn’t leave me rolling in the aisles.

Editing Global Warming reports by lobbyists who leave to work for Exxon wasn’t amusing.

Signing statements aren’t exactly great ‘punch lines’.

Phoney reporters in the White House Press pool wasn’t entertaining.

Outing a CIA Agent wasn’t good for a laugh.

Lying to get us into a war and fixing facts wasn’t a great late night stand-up routine.

“What’s a little dunk” and Americans endorsing torture doesn’t bring a smile to my face.

Extraordinary Rendition of individuals from the United States to third world countries wouldn’t make a great humor story.

The Mexico City Policy that denies financial support to African women who are at risk because the clinic mentioned abortion doesn’t make me grab my ribs in glee.

A stem cell policy that requires fertility labs to throw unused frozen embryos into the garbage instead of using them to research into the causes of Parkinson’s or cures for spinal cord injuries is not what I would call a great “ha ha ha”.

No these things don’t give me a big HO HO HO this Holiday Season.

So I am not joking. And I am not laughing.

[...]

John Kerry was right and is right on the issues facing America. Issues that aren’t funny. Issues that reach into the very core of what America means.

Hear, hear, Robert … well-said.

Bob Geiger noted JK’s support for veterans in his blog post analyzing just how the outgoing majority party suppressed legislation proposed by Democratic legislators that related to military and national security issues. Bob has some interesting stats that you may want to check out.

Then there was this post on Democratic Underground by dailykoff which just made us smile:

 I have a message for Senator Kerry:  Run, John, Run!

Check out the rest of dailykoff’s plea here.

 

And finally there’s this post by Mark Barrett at The Premise which, although it doesn’t reference JK directly, does add some enlightenment.

...it’s worth noting when the American press veers in the opposite direction, suppressing casualty figures almost like the Bush administration itself. If you’ve been watching the news at all lately you know that over the past three or four months U.S. troop deaths in Iraq have spiked.

[...]

In fact, the press was quite good at documenting the spike in troops casualties and deaths even through the mid-term elections. This after falling silent about such icky subjects as death and dismemberment during the 2004 cycle.

So why do I think the press has fallen silent again? Because of the average troop-deaths, by month:

07/06: 1.48 08/06: 2.13 09/06: 2.57 10/06: 3.55 11/06: 2.57 12/06: 3.41

Did you know the rate of troops killed had spiked again this month? Because I sure didn’t. But maybe that’s because I’ve been being bombarded with brooding stories about how hard George Bush is thinking about how to win in Iraq, when I’m not being told whether retailers are happy about their profits this year.

It’s Christmas, and I’m not going to tell anybody what that should mean. But what it shouldn’t mean is that we lose sight of the people who are dying in our name.

Thanks, Mark, for reminding us where the focus should be.