Kerry: Peace Corps Can Help Heal Iraqi Abuse Damage [View All]

[PfcHammer]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040508/us_nm/campaign_kerry_dc_3

Kerry: Peace Corps Can Help Heal Iraqi Abuse Damage

22 minutes ago Add U.S. National - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Patricia Wilson

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Idealistic Americans can help heal damage from the Iraqi prisoner scandal by serving on the international aid frontlines with the U.S. Peace Corps, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) said on Saturday.

In a commencement address at historically black Southern University at New Orleans, the decorated Vietnam veteran, who came back to the United States an anti-war activist, rejected "the cynicism that says you can't make a difference."

"In the last days we've all seen photos of horrific abuses in an Iraqi prison that do a disservice to the courageous efforts of over 100,000 American soldiers," Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery. "Those abuses have done enormous damage to our country."

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"If there was ever a time when everyday people in the most deprived countries, cities and villages of the world need to see idealistic Americans working to help them, it is today, when we are engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of people everywhere," Kerry said.

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