July 16, 2003 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says President Bush hasn't matched tough rhetoric with strong actions and is suffering from a credibility gap on national security.
"The gap between America's national security and this administration's deeds is widening every day," Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery at a veterans' memorial hall in New York City Wednesday.
"Americans have a right to ask: Are we safer today than we were on Sept. 11?" Kerry asked. "Are our nation's firefighters and police officers better prepared to wage the war on terror?"
The Massachusetts senator said the Bush administration has shortchanged police and firefighters by denying them "the equipment and support to defend America from danger."
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"We cannot afford to leave the front lines of home security without the resources they need any more than we can afford to leave our soldiers vulnerable to attack in Iraq," he said.
Appearing on NBC's "Today" show in advance of the speech, Kerry was asked whether he thought the United States was more safe than before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"In airline security and a few other things we are," he replied, "but we haven't done what we need to do for what the president and others have said is inevitable. They say there is an evitability of attack."
Kerry and other Democratic presidential candidates have stepped up criticism of the president since the admission last week that a line in his State of the Union address alleging Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa should not have been included. Other questions have been raised about prewar claims about Iraq by the administration.
Kerry criticized Bush on several fronts, accusing the administration of:
--Going to war with Iraq without a "plan to win the peace."
--Stalling investigations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
--Failing to invest enough in the police, fire and emergency workers responsible for the safety of the homeland.
"We shouldn't be opening firehouses in Baghdad while closing them in Brooklyn," Kerry said.
Americans should trust the intelligence that guides them into war, he said.
Calling the Bush administration "big on bluster and short on action," Kerry said combative rhetoric not matched by stronger homeland security is dangerous. And he called for more international help in policing Iraq.
"It is a long way from 'speak softly and carry a big stick' to a president who says 'bring 'em on' and 'dead or alive' -- then leaves front-line defenders without the numbers and equipment they need to wage the war on terror," he said. |
