John Kerry has a plan to increase foreign participation in Iraq and retreat forthwith, but he's not going to share it with anyone until he's elected, the Washington Post reports. Kerry did announce that he will pull the vast majority of American troops out of Iraq before the end of his first term in office:

John F. Kerry pledged Sunday he would substantially reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq by the end of his first term in office but declined to offer any details of what he said is his plan to attract significantly more allied military and financial support there.

In interviews on television talk shows, the Democratic presidential nominee said that he saw no reason to send more troops to Iraq and that he would seek allied support to draw down U.S. forces there. "I will have significant, enormous reduction in the level of troops," he said on ABC's "This Week."

Kerry accused President Bush of misleading the country before the war in Iraq, burning bridges with U.S. allies and having no plan to win peace. But when questioned about saying Thursday in his acceptance speech, "I know what we have to do in Iraq," he would not tip his hand.

A secret plan to end the war? Where have we heard this before? Journalists on the talk shows had no trouble recalling, even though it happened 36 years ago. The Kerry campaign cannot be happy about this comparison, and it showed in Kerry's response:

Reminded that he sounded like Richard M. Nixon, who campaigned in 1968 by saying he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, Kerry responded: "I don't care what it sounds like. The fact is that I'm not going to negotiate in public today without the presidency, without the power."

Kerry previously has discussed his desire to reduce U.S. forces in Iraq but declined to attach any timetable to that goal. He spoke more extensively about Iraq after his acceptance speech, suggesting he has an exit strategy.

John Kerry -- the new Nixon! He won't tell you anything about how he plans to convince the French and Germans to put troops they don't have into Iraq in numbers great enough to have us go home and leave them holding the bag. If that sounds like a stupid deal for the French and Germans to accept -- even Republicans wouldn't demand that of them -- Kerry wants you to know that his superior brain power will convince them to do it. Why? Because he has a secret plan, and you don't get to see it unless you elect him President.

It's really too bad he's not already an officeholder, a person with some official standing in the US government, or he could already be working on America's behalf. Darn it! If he wasn't an outsider in Washington, we could already have harnessed his superior intellect to solve this Gordian knot.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Take a look around, and bookmark and/or blogroll CQ if you enjoy your visit. In case you haven't heard, I'll be one of the credentialed bloggers at the Republican convention, so be sure to check back on updates...

UPDATE II: Rusty at My Pet Jawa says that the Kerry campaign has no respect for intellectual property -- they've infringed on his copyright ...

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