WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential contender John Kerry on Wednesday called the US occupation of Iraq a "mess" and said it was time for President George W. Bush to acknowledge his difficulties to the world.
The Massachusetts senator, who is running even with the Republican Bush in opinion polls for the November 2 election, slammed the US administration's handling of Iraq where US forces have been confronted by mounting insurgent violence.
"They're doing it in such a frankly inept way," he told CNN.
Kerry called for the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority to hand over responsibility for reconstruction and establishing a new government to "a legitimate international entity." He added that "people don't want to go to work for Paul Bremer" the US civilian administrator in Baghdad.
"I'm not the president and I didn't create this mess, so I don't want to acknowledge a mistake that I haven't made," Kerry said.
"But let me tell you something, the president needs to step up and acknowledge that there are difficulties and that the world needs to be involved, and they need to reverse their policy."
Kerry said Bush had blundered by excluding countries that opposed the Iraq war from the huge rebuilding contracts. "That's a terrible message to send to countries.
"They need to go to the world and say we're not going to have an American authority that is creating this new government, we're going to have an international authority that will help develop the new government."
He added that if the administration "insists on doing this through our provisional government authority, if we insist on being totally in control the way we are today, we're going to have an impossible time legitimately bringing people to the table."
Iraq is now the cause of mounting divisions in the US Congress, which voted overwhelmingly in October 2002 to authorize Bush to invade.
Senator Ted Kennedy, a leading Democrat and ally of Kerry, caused Republican outrage Monday when he said Iraq had become "Bush's Vietnam".
Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat and one of the most outspoken opponents of the 2002 resolution, spoke against increasing the number of US troops in Iraq during a floor debate Wednesday.
"Increasing the US troop presence in Iraq will only suck us deeper and deeper and deeper into the maelstrom - into the quicksand of violence that has become the hallmark of that unfortunate, miserable country," Byrd said.
"At this juncture, more US forces in Iraq equates more US targets in Iraq."
But Senator John McCain, an influential Republican and Vietnam war veteran, said the United States had to show its determination to finish the mission to bring order to Iraq.
"If we fail, if we cut and run the results can be disastrous," McCain told the Senate.
"Those results would be the fragmentation of Iraq on ethnic and religious lines. the second result would be an unchecked hotbed ... of individuals who are committed to the destruction of the United States of America."
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