Kerry Takes Bush to Task Over Security

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-kerry28feb28,1,876192.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Democrat John F. Kerry charged Friday that President Bush sent troops to war unprepared and pursued policies that have undermined the U.S. military and the nation's safety — one of his harshest attacks yet on Bush's national security credentials.

In an address at UCLA days before the California primary, the front-runner for his party's presidential nomination derided what he termed the administration's "armchair hawks." And he said, "George Bush inherited the strongest military in the world. And I know and members of the military know ... that George Bush has in fact weakened that military by overextending it."

<snip>

Kerry criticized Bush's handling of unrest in the Middle East, calling the peace process "paralyzed," and he accused the president of shortchanging U.S. troops in Iraq.

"Far too often, troops have been going into harm's way without the weapons and the equipment they depend on....," Kerry said. "Families across America have had to collect funds from their neighbors to buy body armor that is state-of-the-art for their loved ones in uniform, because George Bush has failed to provide it."

Kerry charged that American forces had Osama bin Laden in their grasp more than two years ago at Tora Bora, but that "George Bush held U.S. forces back, and instead called on Afghan warlords with no loyalty to our cause to finish the job."

[coloradodem2005]

1. Go Kerry.

He Bush will be put on the defensive once again.

[RobertSeattle]

2. Kerry could also turn the table on Bush on "Not Ready for Duty"

Recall the 2000 GOP convention when Bush LIED about 2 division being "not ready for duty". Now we have divisions that truly aren't ready for duty.

http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/07/lie_week/index.html

[fearnobush]

3. YESSSS!!! Kerry Rocks!!!!

Now, He needs to tell a little more truth about Bush's Weapons of Mass Deception. This brave solder's account is shocking, and well, what we already knew. I hope she has some proof.



Soldier for the Truth - Exposing Bush's talking-points war By Marc Cooper LA Weekly Writer
After two decades in the U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, now 43, knew her career as a regional analyst was coming to an end when in the months leading up to the war in Ira

Snip

Kwiatkowski got there just as war fever was spreading, or being spread as she would later argue, through the halls of Washington. Indeed, shortly after her arrival, a piece of NESA was broken off, expanded and re-dubbed with the Orwellian name of the Office of Special Plans. The OSPs task was, ostensibly, to help the Pentagon develop policy around the Iraq crisis.crisis.

Snip

She would soon conclude that the OSP a pet project of Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld was more akin to a nerve center for what she now calls a neoconservative coup, a hijacking of the Pentagon.

Snip

So you dont think there was a genuine interest as to whether or not there really were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

"Its not about interest. We knew. We knew from many years of both high-level surveillance and other types of shared intelligence, not to mention the information from the U.N., we knew, we knew what was left and the viability of any of that. Bush said he didnt know. The truth is, we know didnt have these things. Almost a billion dollars has been spent a billion dollars! by David Kays group to search for these WMD, a total whitewash effort. They didnt find anything, they didnt expect to find anything"

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?crisis.tmpl=story&u=/vv/20040220/lo_laweekly/51202&cid=891&ncid=1501>