http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/29/MNGSO6TRKK1.DTLSen. John Kerry promised an occasionally tearful gathering of soldiers, veterans and their families here Friday that as president, he would bring the troops home from Iraq "as fast as possible." He also assailed the Bush administration for being insensitive to the human toll of the war.
Noting that Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, was unable to tell a recent congressional hearing how many American soldiers had died in Iraq, Kerry declared, "You'd think that every day, they'd be conscious of exactly what the cost is."
Kerry's comments came at a town-hall-style meeting that captured his campaign's mix of patriotism, support for the troops in Iraq and scalding criticism of the policies that put them there. On the second day of a two-week drive to establish his credentials on national security, Kerry also told an audience of veterans that Bush had shortchanged their health and benefit programs while carefully protecting tax cuts for the wealthy.
Citing a recent administration budget document that discussed new spending reductions for veterans benefits, Kerry declared, "I'm not going to listen to (Vice President) Dick Cheney and (Defense Secretary) Don Rumsfeld and some of these other people talk about patriotism in America, when the first definition of patriotism is keeping faith with the people who wore the uniform of our country."
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Kerry was introduced and endorsed by a decorated Vietnam veteran who said he was a third-generation Republican.
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