North Korea a "far more compelling threat" than Iraq: Kerry

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040530/ts_alt_afp/us_vote_kerry_iraq_iran&cid=1506&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s fixation on Iraq (news - web sites) has made the United States less safe and allowed North Korea (news - web sites) and Iran to pursue efforts to develop nuclear weapons, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) said in an interview.


"This administration has been almost myopic in its view on Iraq itself, to the exclusion of those things that are necessary to, in fact, make the world safer," the senator from Massachusetts told The New York Times.


"This administration is high on rhetoric and high on ideology and low on actual strategic thinking and truth," Kerry said.


"And the fact is that they have broken alliances across the planet that have served us well for years, they've left our reputation in tatters," he said. "There's no one who deals with the global community who doesn't understand the degree to which we've isolated ourselves, and I think we're less safe because of that."

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