John Kerry's latest zigzag on Iraq leaves a sharp difference between him and George W. Bush on that issue. At New York University on September 20, Kerry said, "We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure." There is an obvious tension between this and Kerry's statement August 9 that, knowing what he knows today, he would have voted again to authorize military action in Iraq and his statement last December 16 that "those who doubt that we are safer with [Saddam Hussein's] capture don't have the judgment to be president." Last week he criticized Bush's actions in tones as scathing as those he used when he was competing with Howard Dean in Iowa and New Hampshire.

What would he do differently in the future? Three of his four proposals are pretty much what is being done now--training Iraqi security forces, rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, holding elections in January. The other, bringing in more allies, is unrealistic: The same day Kerry spoke, Jacques Chirac said, in a language Kerry understands, "La politique française a l'egard de l'Irak n'a pas change et ne changera pas" (French policy with regard to Iraq has not changed and will not change). But the reason Kerry wants to make Iraq "the world's responsibility" is to "get the job done and bring our troops home," starting next summer and ending "within the next four years." The bottom line: withdrawal...