Response to Tora Bora

One of John Kerry's strongest debating points, and seemingly strong arguments against the management of the War on Terror, has been his complaint that the Bush administration "outsourced" the job of getting Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, and the tribals who were given the job of finding OBL let him slip away. Kerry criticized Bush for this in the first and third debates, and the Breck Girl (link via The Corner) chimed in during the vice-presidential debate.

Now, Mickey Kaus has posted a quote from Kerry during an appearance on "Larry King Live" from December 14, 2001. Responding to a question about the use of flamethrowers to get the al Qaeda remnant out of Tora Bora, Kerry remarked, "But for the moment, what we are doing, I think, is having its impact and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively and we should continue to do it that way." In another portion of the interview, he stated, regarding the war in Afghanistan, "I think we have been smart, I think the administration leadership has done it well and we are on right track."

Interesting. No criticism of outsourcing the job, just praise for protecting the troops in the best way possible. Of course, three years ago his campaign for president had hardly begun. But it's notable that Kerry himself was uncritical of the manner in which the administration was using troops in Afghanistan at the time, and has only started the disingenuous "Tora Bora" mantra in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign.

UPDATE: Kerry has renewed the claim of "outsourcing" bin Laden at a recent campaign rally. Can someone please remind him of what he said at the time? Of course, it's wishful thinking to hope that he might actually acknowledge that he used to thinkthe administration "ha[d] done it well ans [was] on [the] right track."