In his most detailed comments on the Iraq war, Mayor Bloomberg last night suggested the United States was in the same difficult position as the British in the Revolutionary War – facing a determined band of insurgents.
Bloomberg said the comparison occurred to him when he visited his mother recently and was driving through Lexington, Mass., where a scrubby group of farmers rose up against a well-trained militia more than 200 years ago.
“We’re the British,” the mayor said during an interview with Tom Brokaw at Cooper Union, part of a series featuring potential presidential contenders hosted by former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
“I’m not suggesting the motives are the same. But I’m just pointing out that this was an insurgent kind of attack on trained, disciplined, uniformed soldiers who fought in a rigorously planned way. And we’re trying to adjust to that.”
Bloomberg called on the press to demand more detailed answers from the presidential candidates on a wide range of issues, including Iraq. But he readily admitted, “I don’t know the solution more than anyone else.”
Surprisingly, only about three-quarters of the 900-seat Great Hall was filled as the mayor spent 45 minutes discussing the war, education and health care.
Those hoping for a hint of Bloomberg’s presidential plans left disappointed.
The mayor deflected a direct question from Brokaw about whether he was “absolutely ruling out” a White House run by veering into harmless sports talk, saying his priority right now is a Yankee-Met showdown in the World Series.
“The door has not been closed,” Brokaw immediately pointed out.
As he has before, Bloomberg maintained that the United States is in “big trouble and said, “Somebody’s got to pull it out.” He didn’t specify who that somebody should be.
“There is an arrogance and willingness to go it alone that quite understandably I think doesn’t play well around the world,” he added in one of his most striking attacks on the Bush administration.
One seasoned observer, former Rep. Herman Badillo, said he remained skeptical about Bloomberg’s presidential chances.
“Just because Abraham Lincoln spoke here and that propelled his presidency doesn’t mean history is going to repeat itself,” said Badillo, who lost the GOP mayoral primary to Bloomberg in 2001.