Kerry hits Bush hard on war

[Feanorcurufinwe]

After calling for a moment of silence to honor the members of a Davenport-based Iowa National Guard unit who were injured in a helicopter attack in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry blamed President Bush for the status of the American war effort there.



<snip>

Kerry said the United Nations was prepared to act in Iraq, but that the administration pushed too quickly for war, before the world community was ready.

“They were prepared to do what was necessary,” Kerry said. “They just didn’t think it was necessary then.” Kerry went on to say the situation in Iraq should be laid at the president’s door. “What we are witnessing today is the fault of George W. Bush,” he said.

<snip>

Kerry has said Dean’s position is not as clear cut as it’s been portrayed. The Dean campaign has ridiculed Kerry’s views on the war as muddled.
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The senator won a convert Sunday, however. Pat Baxter-Rebal, a Democratic activist from LeClaire, Iowa, who had been considering supporting Dean, said Sunday night the country already had learned about trusting a governor without foreign policy experience.
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Kerry told the group the United Nations needs to be enlisted in the war effort, and that the American profile needs to be lowered in Iraq. Kerry also repeated his belief that the war on terror needs to center on intelligence-gathering. “This is a manhunt,” he said.
http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1019919&t=Local+News&c=2,1019919

[killbotfactory]

1. He just had to throw Dean in there.

Howard Dean: Clear, consistant, accurate.

John Kerry: For the war when it looks like it's going right, against it when it doesn't.

It is much tougher now, as he presents himself as both a dreamer and a realist, an old liberal and a new Democrat, for the war in Iraq and yet troubled by it. While other White House hopefuls lined up for or against Iraq, Kerry voted for the war and then criticized the president for failing at diplomacy.

Hunter, Dreamer, Realist - Complexity Infuses Senator's Ambition - June 06, 2003

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS
Senator Kerry, the first question goes to you. On March 19th, President Bush ordered General Tommy Franks to execute the invasion of Iraq. Was that the right decision at the right time?

SENATOR JOHN KERRY
George, I said at the time I would have preferred if we had given diplomacy a greater opportunity, but I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him.

May 4th, 2004

That said, Saddam Hussein is a tyrant, truly the personification of evil. He has launched two wars of aggression against his neighbors, perpetrated environmental disaster, purposefully destabilized an entire region of the world, murdered tens of thousands of his own citizens, flouted the will of the United Nations and the world in acquiring weapons of mass destruction, conspired to assassinate the former President of the United States, and provided harbor and support to terrorists bent on destroying us and our friends.

From that perspective, regardless of the Administration's mishandling of so much of this situation, no President can defer the national security decisions of this country to the United Nations or any other multilateral institution or individual country.

Even having botched the diplomacy, it is the duty of any President, in the final analysis, to defend this nation and dispel the security threats - threats both immediate and longer term - against it.

Saddam Hussein has brought military action upon himself by refusing for twelve years to comply with the mandates of the United Nations. The brave and capable men and women of our armed forces and those who are with us will quickly , I know, remove him once and for all as a threat to his neighbors, to the world, and to his own people, and I support their doing so.

March 17th, 2003

Saddam Hussein made a grave error when he chose to make war with the ultimate
weapons-inspections enforcement mechanism

April 11th, 2003

[sandnsea]

2. The reporter wrote the article

Here's the quote in context, which you'd know if you had actually clicked the link and read the article. The article doesn't quote Kerry as saying anything about Dean in Davenport.

"Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who early on levied harsh criticism of the administration and Democratics in Congress who supported the war resolution, has become a leading candidate. In fact, polls have shown Dean to be winning in New Hampshire, the first primary state.

Kerry has said Dean’s position is not as clear cut as it’s been portrayed. The Dean campaign has ridiculed Kerry’s views on the war as muddled."

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. "This is a manhunt"

I think we need to make the case to the American people that not only has Bush bungled on Iraq, his overall response to 9/11 is completely wrong. From letting Osama escape from Tora Bora, to alienating our allies and world opinion in general, to focusing our resources on the wrong fights. Bush has totally screwed this up, yet he plans on making it his big issue. We need to take it away from him.

[blm]

5. This is a fact.

And Dean is on record as saying he supported what Bush did in Tora Bora, and on record as opposing Gore and Kerry when they attacked Bush on his failed strategy that allowed Bin Laden to escape.

[Larkspur]

6. BS, blm. Dean's anti-war stance is closer to Gore's than Kerry's is

Remember Sep 23, 2002, when Al Gore gave his speech on Iraq and the War on Terrorism. Gore warned Democrats, like Kerry, to not support Bush's rush to war, but at the time Gore was considered the frontrunner for the Dem nomination and Kerry's major competitor, so Kerry had to try to make himself different from Gore and voted for the Iraq War Resolution that was a blank check for war, which Gore opposed.

Dean quotes from Gore's Sep 23, 2002 speech to justify his anti-Iraq war position in his Commondreams.org op ed Bush: It's Not Just His Doctrine That's Wrong

Many in Congress who voted for this resolution should have known better. On September 23, 2002, Al Gore cautioned in his speech in San Francisco that “if the Congress approves the Iraq resolution just proposed by the Administration it is simultaneously creating the precedent for preemptive action anywhere, anytime this or any future president so decides.” And that is why it was such a big mistake for Congress to allow the president to set this dangerous precedent.

[blm]

7. Hahah...can you READ the actual post, Larkspur?

The one I was responding to? It brought up Tora Bora. Afghanistan.

Gore and Kerry were criticizing Bush's failure there in early 2002 and Dean SUPPORTED Bush on it, ON MTP, refusing to backup Kerry and Gore. But, that was back when he was jockeying to claim the center vote.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. Oh my, there was a time when Dean was backing Bush?

let's see those quotes!.... bring'em on!

[blm]

11. Here ya go....Dean refusing to back up Gore and Kerry on MTP

 MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe the military operation in Afghanistan has been successful?
       
       GOV. DEAN: Yes, I do, and I support the president in that military operation.
       
       MR. RUSSERT: The battle of Tora Bora was successful?
       
       GOV. DEAN: I’ve seen others criticize the president. I think it’s very easy to second-guess the
       commander-in-chief at a time of war. I don’t choose to engage in doing that.

[sandnsea]

10. "just proposed by the Administration"

Uhm... Congress didn't approve that resolution.

[mitchum]

4. kick

[NewYorkerfromMass]

9. already had learned to not trust a governor w/o foreign policy experience

ouch. Definitely another Rove line coming out for '04.

[Octafish]

12. Kerry is Rove's biggest nightmare.

The reason: Rove's boss, the Little Turd from Crawford, only plays a war hero on TV.

John Kerry is a real-life war hero. Plus, Kerry has the compassion to help lead the fight against war when he was a very young man.