Los Angeles Times
September 24, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sen. John F. Kerry drew on the war he knows best
Thursday as he pressed his criticism of President Bush's handling of the
conflict in Iraq, charging that the administration was withholding the truth
about the situation there from the American public.
The Democratic
presidential candidate lashed out at his rival, recalling the sense of betrayal
Americans felt at the end of the Vietnam War.
"I fought in a war when we
weren't told the truth, and I know the consequences, and so does America," Kerry
said outside a Columbus firehouse, returning to a theme he had been mentioning
less on the campaign trail.
Emphasizing repeatedly that he wants the
U.S. to be victorious in Iraq, the Massachusetts senator argued that Bush's
leadership would not deliver success.
"The president says that things
are getting better in Iraq, and we must just stay the same course," he said.
"Well, I disagree. They're not getting better. And we need to change the
course to protect our tro ops and to win."
"A president's true test of
leadership is how he responds when things are going wrong," Kerry added. "You
need to be prepared to tell the truth, and I think a president who fails to
admit his mistakes is a president who proves that he doesn't know how to make
the course correct."
Vice President Dick Cheney sharply criticized
Kerry's remarks. "John Kerry is trying to tear down all the good that has been
accomplished, and his words are destructive to our effort in Iraq and in the
global war on terror," Cheney said.
It was the fourth straight day that
the debate over the conditions in Iraq dominated the presidential
campaign.
The latest exchanges came as two national polls showed Bush
leading in the race, but by varying margins. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal
poll gave Bush a slight lead over his challenger, 48% to 45% in a matchup
including independent candidate Ralph Nader. A CBS News poll showed Bush
leading Kerry 49% to 41% in a three-way matchup. Both polls have an error
margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Other recent polls have
shown the president strengthening his position in several of the race's most
competitive states.
Kerry said the Bush administration was "in
disarray," noting that the president's remark Wednesday that Iraq was plagued by
a handful of terrorists contradicted Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's
previous statements that the country had attracted many terrorists, as well as
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's acknowledgment this week that
terrorists were "pouring" into Iraq.
Kerry said that Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld had misled Americans about the number of Iraqi troops that
had been trained by first saying there were 210,000 Iraqi security forces, and
then changing his estimate to 95,000.
Citing a recent State Department
report, Kerry said the number of trained soldiers was 5,000.
"It's a
disgrace that the secretary of Defense doesn't tell the truth to the American
people , and it's a disgrace that this president doesn't hold anybody in his
administration accountable for failure," he said. "These are not small
miscalculations. These are miscalculations that are costing lives —
costing America's reputation in the world."
The Bush campaign disputed
Kerry's figures, saying that 5,000 referred only to the number of Iraqi army
soldiers, and did not include the Iraqi national guard, intervention force, air
force, special operations and coastal defense forces. Altogether, about 42,000
Iraqi troops have been trained, the campaign said.
But Kerry maintained
that Iraq faced widespread instability that threatened the ability to hold
elections in January. He said that he read a "devastating" account from a
former deputy director of the Coalition Provisional Authority on Wednesday
stating that reconstruction aid was not being distributed in the country and
that unemployment was rampant.
"I want democracy to take hold," Kerry
said. "But at the moment, I think most people would tell you that the United
States and the Iraqis have retreated from whole areas of Iraq. There are no-go
zones in Iraq today. You can't hold an election in a no-go zone."
The
senator reiterated his call for Bush to seek more assistance from the
international community to stabilize Iraq, mocking his trip this week to the
United Nations as insufficient. "The president skedaddled out of New York so
quickly, he barely had time to talk to any leaders," he said.
Kerry,
recovering from a cold and nursing a hoarse voice, skipped two events he had
planned to attend in Iowa on Thursday, sending his running mate, Sen. John
Edwards of North Carolina, in his stead. He also delayed a speech he was
planning to give in Columbus about terrorism until today in
Philadelphia.
The Democrat plans to spend the bulk of the next week
preparing for the first presidential debate, set for Thursday in Miami. He's
holding his practice sessions at a resort in Wisconsin, where a recent poll by
ABC Ne ws found Bush pulling ahead of Kerry.