Sen. John Kerry is scheduled to deliver a speech on reforming America’s military. Previews of the speech indicate that Kerry is not going to look anything like the Kerry, who is immortalized as one of the great reasons that the North Vietnamese were able to defeat America in that country’s war museum [news article link]. Kerry will try to portray himself as even more hawkish than President Bush.

The interesting thing is that Kerry sounds like President Bush when discussing his strategy for the war on terrorism and a military of the future.

Richard Holbrooke, who has advised Democrat Presidents for decades and currently advises Kerry, tried to bolster Kerry’s foreign policy credentials on the Charlie Rose Show. Holbrooke argued for the delay aspect that no action should take place without multilateral support (the very action that took place in Bosnia which resulted in hundreds of thousands of ethnic cleansing deaths before the incompetent "Old" Europeans finally showed up to join in the absurd Gen. Wesley Clarke executed War in Bosnia). Holbrooke even tried to suggest that not since George W’s father, George H. W. Bush, has a candidate been as qualified in foreign affairs as Sen. John Kerry.

All of this is the object of the week, to make Kerry look like he is a hawk.

It has been hinted that Kerry’s speech today will try to out-Rumsfeld Don Rumsfeld in its call for lighter, faster and more powerful strategy.

Part of his speech will carry these remarks:

"We went into Iraq with too few troops to prevent looting and crime, and we failed to secure nearly a million tons of conventional weapons now being used against our troops. We failed to build alliances and squandered the opportunity to generate wider support inside Iraq, in the Arab world, and among the major powers. These mistakes have complicated our mission and complicated our objective: a stable Iraq with a representative government secure in its borders."

"The effect is clear: our soldiers are stretched too thin."

"The Administration's answer has been to put band-aids on the problem. They have effectively used a stop loss policy as a back-door draft. They have extended tours of duty, delayed retirements, and prevented enlisted personnel from leaving the service. Just yesterday, the Army announced this would effect even more soldiers whose units are headed to Iraq and Afghanistan. By employing these expedients, they've increased the forces by 30,000 troops."

Kerry’s retired generals who are part of shaping today’s speech on the military are:

·        Admiral William Crowe, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

·        Gen. John Shalikashvili, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

·        Gen. Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

·        Gen. Joseph Hoar, former Commander-in-Chief, US Central Command

·        Admiral Stansfield Turner, former director, Central Intelligence Agency

·        Gen. Tony McPeak, former US Air Force Chief of Staff

·        Gen. Johnnie Wilson, former Commander, US Army Material Command

·        LTG Daniel Christman, former superintendent, U.S. Military Academy

·        LTG General Kennedy, former Deputy Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence

·        Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, former Inspector General, U.S. Navy

·        Maj. Gen. Harry Jenkins, former Chief Legislative Liaison, U.S. Marine Corps.

Advising Kerry on foreign policy are former Clinton Cabinet members:

·        Defense Secretary William Perry

·        National Security Adviser; Samuel R. Berger

·        Richard Holbrooke

·        Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Mrs. Albright.

Kerry has also benefited from Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an NBC News on-air analyst; and retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni’s criticism of President Bush’s policies.

Despite all of this, the best political position that Kerry can come up with is that he would be a more competent executor of Bush policy than Bush.

This can only be successful, however, if Kerry can implement the belief that the very policies he is advocating are not currently working. It seems that the best Kerry can muster doesn’t go beyond the latest Kerry campaign slogan... "America be America Again."