Reply #9: What Kerry said on 'Knowing what I know now' in Sept. 04 [View All]

[TayTay]

THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: THE CAMPAIGN; In Harshest Critique Yet, Kerry Attacks Bush Over War in Iraq
New York Times, Late Edition - Final, Sec. A, p 1 09-21-2004
By JODI WILGOREN and ELISABETH BUMILLER


In an interview with David Letterman broadcast Monday night on the "Late Show," Mr. Kerry was asked directly whether, had he been elected president in 2000, he would have taken the country to war in Iraq. Mr. Kerry said simply, "No."

Pressed about whether American troops would be in Iraq now if a Kerry administration had received the same intelligence the Bush administration had, Mr. Kerry said: "We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction. We know now there was no connection to Al Qaeda. We know there was no imminent threat and under those circumstances. I would not have taken America to war."

And you could as they say, look it up.

Here is the video: http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/kerryletterman.h...

And the Washington Post still has this transcript up from last year:

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) if the world is better off with Saddam gone, how did that square with the comment last night with David Letterman, that knowing what you now know, you wouldn't have gone to war?

KERRY: Because, for several reasons. First of all, it's obvious, if he is gone, the world is better off without him.

KERRY: Everybody understands that. He's a brutal dictator. And as I said yesterday in my speech, he deserves his own special place in hell.

But that doesn't mean that you go to war in an irresponsible way that puts America at greater risk. That doesn't mean you should take your eye off the ball, which was Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida, and rush to war just to get rid of him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39311-20...

I am sorry that these comments were held in dark dank little places that no one can see, like the Letterman show and referenced in tiny Indy papers like the Washington Post and the New York Times, but you campaign with the media you have, not the media you wish you had.