John Kerry will be traveling to Iraq this weekend to “meet with soldiers, political leaders and military officials.”

When asked in a telephone interview with The Associated Press about his botched joke, that the Noise machine just loves to continue to press, Kerry said, “I’ve talked to plenty of guys who’ve come back from Iraq, who are there now, who understand exactly what happened. They laugh at it.”

AP News reports that “Kerry’s Iraq stop will be part of a nine-day Mideast trip that includes stops in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Israel.” AP also notes that Kerry, “who was widely criticized for the quip, said he’d be happy to apologize to any soldiers he encounters in Iraq who don’t understand what happened.”

“For anybody who misunderstood (the joke) or got only the White House presentation of it, I’d apologize, obviously,” he said.

Rick Klein reports in the Boston Globe that John Kerry’s visit to the Middle East will actually be a fact finding mission as “he seeks to hone a regional approach to ending the Iraq war while entering the final stage of his deliberations about another run for president.” Kerry leaves on Wednesday.

Kerry said he hopes to use the regional trip, his first there in nearly year, to meet with political leaders and US troops in Iraq about solutions to the Iraq conflict. His meetings will include a session with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a country that the Iraq Study Group recommended should be included in direct talks about the future of Iraq.

“The Mideast policy as a whole is in tatters, and the situation is getting more dangerous, and there is a lot that’s at play,” said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. “This is the most compelling and important issue on the table today: the war on terror, how it would more properly be fought.”

In addition to Iraq and Syria, Kerry will visit Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel, and he will meet with the head of state in all of those countries. He said he plans to venture outside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad to talk to US troops stationed in more volatile parts of the country, including the Sunni Triangle.

The trip comes amid intensifying debate in Washington over the future of Iraq, spurred by the Iraq Study Group’s long-awaited report last week.

As reported here earlier, the White House announced today that Bush will lay out his plans for ‘The New Way Forward’ in Iraq, in a speech in January, and not before the holidays as previously mentioned by the Bush administration. Could it be that BushCo is holding off to hear what the Senator from Massachusetts has to say about the situation in Iraq when he returns? Wishful thinking, that Bush would actually listen to someone who has gotten how bad it is there for a very long time. Unfortunately, it seems the ‘decider’ just can’t decide on what to do, or who to take advice from.

Faced with a growing list of recommendations and a range of contradictory policy options from key advisers, President Bush yesterday delayed a planned announcement about a new strategy for the war in Iraq until the new year.

Kerry will be meeting fellow members of the Senate in Middle East, Senators Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and John McCain of Arizona. Perhaps Bush could listen to all three of them when they get back? Or maybe Laura should read him Bob Herbert’s latest column from the N.Y. Times. Herbert joined the chorus of those who say “The Time Is Now,” on Monday.

The United States lacks that resolve when it comes to Iraq. It is time to pull the troops out of harm’s way.

And finally, the N.Y. Times reports that “Iraq has presented the United States with a plan that calls for Iraqi troops to assume primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year.”

American troops would be shifted to the periphery of the capital.

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, said in an interview that the plan was presented during the meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Nov. 30 between President Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

What are we waiting for?

A spokesman for the National Security Council, Gordon Johndroe, said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American military commander in Iraq, was assessing the plan.

We will look for some straight answers from John Kerry on Iraq, as he makes his trip to the Middle East. I remember not long ago posting about a column in the Boston Herald that suggested Kerry was due for another fact finding mission to Iraq. This will be “Kerry’s fourth visit to Iraq since the war started.

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