Former Democratic presidential candidate criticizes Bush
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Posted 4/18/2004 9:02 PM
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Findings by the Sept. 11 commission show that President Bush did not do enough to keep Americans safe from terrorism, retired Gen. Wesley Clark asserted Saturday.
Clark, who dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in mid-February, was in Lincoln to speak at a Nebraska Democratic Party fund-raiser.
He told about 850 attending Democrats that Bush did not pay attention to intelligence reports about domestic terror threats before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I believe it is the job of the president as chief executive to provide focus and direction," Clark said in a news conference prior to the Nebraska Democratic Party's Morrison-Exon Dinner. "President Bush did not do that with respect to 9/11."
Clark said he holds Bush responsible for taking the country into war in Iraq, saying the war has distracted the United States from its real adversary: al-Qaeda terrorists.
"We went into Iraq without adequate justifications (because) the president and the vice president were obsessed with Saddam Hussein," he said.
He also insisted Iraq had no connection to the Sept. 11 attacks, apparently had no weapons of mass destruction and was not an imminent threat to the United States.
"We must hold this president responsible for grievous misleadership of this country," Clark told the Nebraska Democrats. "Don't be afraid to say it."
Clark is campaigning for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Kerry "understands it's not how you start a war, but how you finish it that counts," Clark said.
Kerry knows postwar success in Iraq depends on international participation by the United Nations and U.S. allies, Clark said. While Clark declared the U.S. military is "doing a great job," political leaders in the Bush administration deserve failing grades.
"They had no plan once we got to Baghdad," he said.
On the domestic front, the administration has amassed huge federal budget deficits that will burden "our sons and daughters and their sons and daughters," Clark said.
"George Bush is going to lose in November because he deserves to lose," he said.
Clark, former NATO commander and four-star general, was the headliner at the gathering that raised more than $100,000 for Democratic campaigns and activities.
"Clearly, this event is an indication of our increasing momentum," said Barry Rubin, Democratic state executive director.
Former U.S. Sen. Jim Exon and other speakers saluted former Gov. Frank Morrison, currently in a McCook hospital. The party recently named the annual dinner for the two men.
Sen. Ben Nelson, the only Democrat in the Nebraska's congressional contingent, also attended the dinner. Nelson said voters will have an opportunity to "change the direction of our country and perhaps change the direction of the world."
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Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.
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