YOU BETCHA! Kerry said he will destroy those dang terrorists!
'Course, he didn't say HOW.
=============================================================
Kerry promises to 'destroy the terrorists,' pressed on U.S. troops in Iraq
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry vowed Friday to "destroy the terrorists" and repair relations with allies to ensure that an international force in Iraq accelerates the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
During a campaign stop in Wisconsin and an interview with The Associated Press, Kerry was pressed about how quickly Americans would get out of Iraq, a growing concern among rank-and-file Democrats.
"If I'm president of the United States, we will not hesitate to move rapidly to get this internationalized in a way that ends combat operations and begins to get our troops out rapidly," Kerry said in the interview.
Asked whether troops would be in Iraq in four years, Kerry said he was hopeful combat would be completed, and added, "there may be some presence of an international force. I think the United States needs to end the sense of American occupation and I will do that."
Earlier, during a round-table discussion of veterans, Kerry was questioned by a woman who lost a brother in the Vietnam War what he planned to do to bring the troops home if elected president. Kerry said losing in Iraq would be dangerous for the United States and the world, but he promised to get Americans home "as fast as possible with honor."
A decorated Vietnam veteran, Kerry evoked the image of veterans of an earlier fight – World War II – as he stood before the command train used by Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. He said it was time to return the nation to the spirit of the greatest generation.
The Democrat criticized President Bush's "blustery, arrogant policies" and told about 300 people during a town-hall meeting at the National Railroad Museum, "I will destroy the terrorists, but I am going to build a bridge to every last country we can so war is the last resort."
Kerry also said he was shocked that during a recent congressional hearing, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz underestimated the U.S. dead among the American forces in Iraq by some 200. At last count, 800 Americans had been killed.
Coinciding with Memorial Day, Kerry focused on the U.S. military and veterans while criticizing the Bush administration's record.
Late Friday he returned to Washington, where he attended a tribute to black veterans organized by the Congressional Black Caucus. Kerry said the veterans, who included World War II veterans of the Tuskegee Airmen and the Buffalo Soldiers, among others, "gave their sweat, gave their tears, gave their lives to a country that at that time believed they should sit behind German POWs at a USO concert."
Kerry said the veterans served as "validators of what this country is really all about."
"When we honor the memory of those who have sacrificed and when we honor those who lived those lives of patriotism, we're not just talking about the past, we're talking about the future," Kerry said. "We're talking about the unfinished journey to make sure that no one else as to fight as hard as you did."
Without specifying to whom he was referring, Kerry said the nation still has "people in this country who don't understand. We still have people in this country who are willing to stand in the way. We still have some who call themselves leaders who appoint people to courts who challenge affirmative action and take on the ability of people to live truly equal."
In Wisconsin, Kerry repeated his call for a temporary increase of about 40,000 active-duty Army troops, called for all military reservists to have health care and complained that the administration has tried to cut imminent danger pay and failed to provide the latest body armor.
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, countered that the administration had already authorized a military increase of some 30,000 and putting every reservist in the military health care system could cost billions, according to some analysts.
"John Kerry's political attacks ignore the fact that Kerry voted against the president's $87 billion" aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan.
signonsandiego.com |
