HE WAS FOR IT BEFORE HE WAS AGAINST IT Mickey Kaus points out that a McLaughlin group transcript from October of ’01 shows Kerry saying:

I have no doubt, I’ve never had any doubt — and I’ve said this publicly — about our ability to be successful in Afghanistan. We are and we will be. The larger issue, John, is what happens afterwards. How do we now turn attention ultimately to Saddam Hussein? How do we deal with the larger Muslim world? What is our foreign policy going to be to drain the swamp of terrorism on a global basis?

But wait, there’s more! This transcript is actually being pushed by the Kerry campaign, as proof that he called for more troops in Afghanistan. But if you look at the section where he’s supposedly calling for more troops, you’ll find that it’s been rather creatively trimmed by the Kerry team. The good senator was actually referring to his past calls for more “boots on the ground”, but reported himself satisfied with troop levels by the time of the interview, on October 16th, 2001.

Don’t Kerry’s people know about the internet yet?