Courtesy of Peter Parisi at the Washington Times, here are some good questions to ask of John Kerry at tonight’s presidential debate: At the first presidential debate. (Hat tip: Geepers.)

Since most of the discussion is likely to focus on the war on terrorism in general and the war in Iraq in particular, here are some questions I’d ask Mr. Kerry.

* “Senator Kerry, in Greensboro, N.C., on Sept. 7, you said Mr. Bush had ‘no plan to win the peace, failed to build an international coalition,’ and launched the war before diplomacy had been exhausted. When you say that Mr. Bush ‘failed to build an international coalition,’ aren’t you disparaging Britain, Italy, Japan, Australia, Poland, Hungary and two dozen other countries that are part of that coalition?”

* “Senator Kerry, the Financial Times reported Monday that French and German government officials say they won’t significantly increase military assistance even if you are elected. So, what countries not in the coalition now would you bring in?”

* “Senator Kerry, your negative characterizations of how the war in Iraq is going is reaching Iraq via Armed Forces Radio, Al Jazeera TV and other outlets. Aren’t you concerned that your remarks are serving, as Mr. Bush says, to ‘embolden the enemy’ and hurt the morale of our troops?”

* “Senator Kerry, when you say that Mr. Bush ‘launched the war before diplomacy had been exhausted,’ it suggests that 14 months of diplomacy was not enough. In your view, how much more time should diplomacy have been given?”

* “Senator Kerry, we know that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction because he used them on the Iranians and on the Kurds. Don’t you suppose those 14 months gave Saddam plenty of time to move his WMDs to, say, Syria or Lebanon?”

* “Senator Kerry, it took only a single envelope full of anthrax to shut down the Capitol. Given the small quantities of chemical and biological weapons it takes to inflict a disproportionate amount of damage, doesn’t that make them easy to hide, and couldn’t that explain why they haven’t been found?”

* “Senator Kerry, you have taken to echoing Howard Dean’s refrain that Iraq is the ‘wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ What would have been the right war, right place and right time?”