Sifting for Truth as Bush and Kerry Wage a War of Words Over Iraq Policy

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/campaign/08facts.html

Sifting for Truth as Bush and Kerry Wage a War of Words Over Iraq Policy
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

ASHINGTON, Sept. 7 - In asserting Tuesday that Senator John Kerry had shifted position once again on Iraq, was President Bush selectively quoting Mr. Kerry to distort what Democrats say is his nuanced but consistent record? Or was he accurately highlighting what Republicans say is the Democratic presidential nominee's long history of unprincipled flip-flops?

Speaking in Lee's Summit, Mo., Mr. Bush said Mr. Kerry had "declared himself the antiwar candidate" during the Democratic primaries but had later said he "would have voted for the war even knowing everything we know today." Mr. Bush went on to say that Mr. Kerry "woke up yesterday morning with yet another new position" and that it was the same one held by Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, who in the primaries battled Mr. Kerry on an antiwar platform.

Deconstructing Mr. Bush's statement on Tuesday shows that as has often been the case as the two sides fight over Iraq policy, there is a basis for his assertions about Mr. Kerry, but also that the president ignores statements by Mr. Kerry that flesh out his position in ways that make Mr. Bush's claims less persuasive.<snip>

Mr. Bush, as Democrats frequently point out, is also vulnerable to assertions of inconsistency on Iraq. They point out that his rationale for the war has shifted over time, from removing the threat posed by chemical, nuclear and biological weapons to breaking up a relationship between Al Qaeda and Mr. Hussein to freeing the Iraqi people from a tyrant to planting the seeds of democracy in a region that is a breeding ground for Islamic radicalism.

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