Kerry Dives into Iraq Topic with Reporters

John Kerry was at the White House today to be on hand when Bush signed the legislation honoring Rosa Parks with a statue in her image at the Capitol. After the event, reporters were on hand with questions for Kerry in the White House driveway. From the looks of the photos they all seemed anxious to ask a few questions, although Steve Holland of Reuters reports that Kerry "quickly dove into the Iraq topic." RIGHT. Looks more like the reporters were diving...

Kerry said Democrats, "are all in agreement that there has to be a profound shift of admitting the reality on the ground and beginning to establish a schedule that we can understand on behalf of the American people about transfer of authority."

The Massachusetts senator described a scaled-down role for U.S. troops, to help guard oil pipelines and guard people working on construction projects.

"You don't need 160,000 people to be doing what we're doing in Iraq today, this is not World War Two, this is not Korea, this is not Vietnam. The principal enemy are IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and suicide bombers," Kerry said.

Kerry was at the White House for a ceremony honoring the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks, but quickly dove into the Iraq topic in talking to reporters on the White House driveway.

UPDATE: Mass notes in our comments that this quote is probably taken out of context by Reuters - “The Massachusetts senator described a scaled-down role for U.S. troops, to help guard oil pipelines and guard people working on construction projects.”

This morning, on the Today Show, Kerry addressed these missions as those that the Iraqi troops could do very easily.