Once Bush had made his announcement about the prospective redeployment of troops, John Kerry wasted no time flip-flopping on the issue. On August 1, before Bush's proposal, Kerry flipped. He told ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops not just there [in Iraq] but elsewhere in the world. In the Korean peninsula perhaps, in Europe perhaps. There are great possibilities open to us."
On August 18, after Bush's proposal, Kerry flopped. He told the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention: "I want to say something about the plan that the President announced on Monday to withdraw 70,000 troops from Asia and Europe. Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars. But it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible way. This is not that time or that way."
