Don't pat yourself on the back -- you were wrong. Kerry delivered an excellent speech on Iraq today:
usatoday.com
Kerry hits Bush for 'colossal failures of judgment' in Iraq
From staff and wire reports
NEW YORK — John Kerry issued a scathing and pointed criticism Monday of President Bush's Iraq policies, saying Bush had repeatedly misled the American public and had compiled "a long litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences."
John Kerry issues a scathing criticism Monday of President Bush's Iraq policy.
By Gerald Herbert, AP
"Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions, and if we do not change course, there is a prospect of a war with no end in sight," Kerry said in a speech Monday in New York City. (Video: Kerry's criticisms)
In a lengthy, detailed address, Kerry laid out a point-by-point criticism of Bush's Iraq policy and the president's rationale for going to war. Kerry said the United States should:
• Get more help from other nations.
• Provide better training for Iraqi security forces.
• Provide benefits to the Iraqi people.
• Ensure that democratic elections can be held next year as promised.
Bush's mistakes, Kerry said, "were not the equivalent of accounting errors. They were colossal failures of judgment — and judgment is what we look for in a president."
The Democratic nominee called the Iraq invasion "a profound diversion" from the war on terror, and said most Iraqis "have lost faith in our ability to provide meaningful improvements in their lives, so they're sitting on the fence."
In a speech in New Hampshire on Monday afternoon, Bush was countering by saying the nation needs "consistency" in its leadership — not a change in the middle of the war, and not a series of contradictions, said campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.
"Our troops deserve better than to hear Kerry's campaign pushing pessimism and lack of faith in the mission," Stanzel said. (Related story: Bush defends Iraq policy)
With six weeks remaining until Election Day, the Massachusetts senator was pressing the debate on an issue that has given him trouble in his bid for the White House. Republicans have accused him of staking out unclear, even contradictory, positions on Iraq, and his speech was aimed at explaining his stance and drawing clear differences with Bush's leadership at a time when troubles in Iraq are mounting.
Kerry tried to turn the criticism back against the president by pointing to varying administration arguments for going to war.
"By one count, the president offered 23 different rationales for this war," Kerry said. "If his purpose was to confuse and mislead the American people, he succeeded."
Kerry said Bush's two main rationales — weapons of mass destruction and a connection between al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 attacks — have been proven false by weapons inspectors and the bipartisan commission investigating the attacks.
"This president was in denial," Kerry said. "He hitched his wagon to the ideologues who surround him, filtering out those who disagreed, including leaders of his own party and the uniformed military. The result is a long litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences."
Bush is facing new criticism on Iraq not just from Democrats, but from members of his own party.
"The fact is, a crisp, sharp analysis of our policies is required. We didn't do that in Vietnam, and we saw 11 years of casualties mount to the point where we finally lost," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran who is co-chairman of Bush's re-election committee in Nebraska. He spoke on CBS' Face the Nation.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar, noted that Congress appropriated $18.4 billion a year ago this week for reconstruction. No more than $1 billion has been spent.
"This is the incompetence in the administration," Lugar, R-Ind., said on ABC's This Week.
Lugar added that the United States needs to train more Iraqi police officers and better coordinate military bombings with Iraqi forces "so that we do not alienate further the Iraqi people by intrusions that are very difficult and are costly in terms of lives."
Sen. John McCain, another Vietnam War veteran, was asked on Fox News Sunday about Bush's often rosy pronouncements about progress in Iraq.
McCain, R-Ariz., said Bush was not being "as straight as we would want him to be" about the situation.
An adviser to McCain, John Weaver, sought to soften McCain's remark, saying it should not be considered a broad critique of the war. Weaver said McCain simply "has some concerns about the day-to-day tactics."
Kerry, a fourth-term Massachusetts senator, voted to give Bush authority to wage the war and he said in August he still would have voted that way had he known there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The Democratic presidential candidate makes a distinction between granting a president war-making authority as a member of the Senate and, as commander in chief, actually taking that fateful step. Republicans have accused Kerry of waffling on the war.
Kerry said Monday, "Is he really saying that if we knew there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to al-Qaeda, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer is no because a commander in chief's first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe."
"Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell," Kerry said. "But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war. The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure."
Kerry's speech was timed one day ahead of Bush's scheduled address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Bush planned to strike back at Kerry's increasingly aggressive criticism on Iraq, aides said.
U.N. member nations have been hesitant to provide support to Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, "From our point of view and from the (U.N.) Charter point of view, it (the Iraq war) was illegal."
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