Kerry Calls for a Drawdown in Iraq

A day after the U.S. death toll in Iraq reached 2,000, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that President Bush should bring home 20,000 troops if Iraq’s December elections are successful, and antiwar protesters took part in vigils and rallies across the country.

The death toll rose to 2,001. The U.S. military announced that a soldier had been killed in an accident Tuesday night near Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. His identity was not immediately released.

Kerry, defeated by Bush in last year’s presidential election, called for a “reasonable time frame” for pulling back troops rather than a full-scale withdrawal advocated by some Democrats. He said it could be completed in 12 to 15 months.

“It is essential to acknowledge that the insurgency will not be defeated unless our troop levels are drawn down ... starting immediately after successful elections in December,” Kerry said in a speech at Georgetown University.

Kerry, who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq, has been a strong critic of Bush’s handling of the conflict, accusing him of misleading the public into going to war.

The Republican National Committee argued that Kerry’s proposed pullback of troops would make American forces remaining in Iraq more vulnerable to insurgent strikes.

But one Republican senator, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, said the Iraq situation was a mess and the country needed a new strategy. “The longer the United States stays ... the more we will be seen as oppressors and occupiers,” he said.

The antiwar group MoveOn.org said it had organized more than 1,000 vigils involving tens of thousands of people across the country. It appealed to supporters to raise $150,000 to air an antiwar TV ad.

Its website listed 23 events in the Los Angeles area alone, mostly small candlelight vigils in parks, public places, homes or on street corners, with people reading poetry, singing songs and observing a moment of silence to remember the fallen.