Massachusetts Senator John Kerry says the U.S. needs to be a “thoughtful, sensitive and humble” super power as it launches the rebuilding of postwar Iraq. Kerry, a leading contender for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, has been in Iowa the past two days courting Iowa voters who’ll hold the kickoff event of the 2004 campaign. Kerry says the United Nations must be involved in the next phase of intervention in Iraq. Kerry says the international community must be involved to avoid American occupation, and to ensure American taxpayers don’t carry the full burden. Kerry says it’s important to ensure Iraq becomes a democracy, because “we don’t want those lives to have been lost for any other reason.” Kerry says it’s time to build bridges with other countries because “even the United States of America needs to make friends around the planet,” and he says “we’d better get about the business of doing so.” Kerry says the U.S. has normally “shown our better side” by reaching out to other countries to deal with things like disease and environmental issues. Kerry says there’s repair work to do done because U.S. prestige has been damaged by a go-it-alone attitude on a number of issues, ranging from Aids in Africa to Iraq. Kerry, who is the son of a diplomat, caused a furor last week when he said it was time for “regime change” in the U.S. During an appearance in Des Moines this morning, he said he was talking about a mindset change in the way the U.S. views it’s role in the world.
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