Howard Dean: ‘We’ve not paid attention to al-Qaida’

AP / Portsmouth Herald ^ | 1/2/2004 | Holly Ramer

[rs79bm]

NASHUA, N.H. -- Democrat Howard Dean said that the events of the last few weeks have shown he was right to conclude that Saddam Hussein’s capture didn’t make America safer.

Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, faced criticism from his party’s rivals for his comments following the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam. Since then, the national terrorism alert has been raised to orange and more troops have been killed in Iraq, he said at a town hall meeting in Nashua.

"They got all excited, but here we are," the former Vermont governor said. "We’ve lost 10 more troops and F-16s are escorting foreign passenger jets into our air space because we’re now more worried than we were before.

"I can assure you it’s not Saddam who’s threatening to bomb airplanes," Dean said. "It’s al-Qaida. We’ve not paid attention to al-Qaida. We’ve spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target."

Dean said even though he opposed the war, his greatest fear now is that "this administration will pull out of Iraq too early for political reasons," Dean said.

If that happens, al-Qaida will move into Iraq and become more powerful than ever.

"My fear is that the (Karl) Rove polls will tell him (Bush), ‘You’ve gotta get out, you’ve gotta get out,’ and he’ll start doing that, " Dean said, referring to Bush’s chief political adviser.

[nuconvert]

"We’ve not paid attention to al-Qaida."

lol. Right. What an a$$.

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
	Hawaii						45.00	3

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[Howlin]

What is wrong with this guy?

[troublesome creek]

Li'l Howie tugging on Superman's cape again.

[stevem]

Not that you would ever want to test out Dean's theories in real life, but it might be fun to hear what he would do different that what Bush has done, other than to put Saddam back in power, with our apologies.

[stylin_geek]

Yes, this administration is poll driven, just like the Clinton administration. /sarcasm

Hey Dean, you're an idiotic ideologue who is as clueless as Gore is wooden.

[Skooz]

This will come as a great surprise to the al quaida terrorists hiding in caves being actively hunted down by the US military.

[P.O.E.]

Dean is a media whore, will do & say anything to get in the paper.

[Steel Wolf]

Al Qaida? What's that? Why is he using that name like I should know what it is?

[JimRed]

He'd whine the loudest about the unfairness if we were found to have been quietly assassinating the bastards.

[ConservativeMan55]

Ask Mohammad Atef about that...lol.

Oh thats right! You can't because he's dead!

[kylaka]

It's Al Gore's third cousin, twice removed.

[AQGeiger]

Do you think Mr. Dean realizes that the things he says are completely nonsensical? He's so opposed to the war, but he's afraid now that we'll extricate ourselves from our commitment to the war too soon?

Puh-leeze!

[Volunteer]

DR. Dean do you take ALL the drugs before you speak or do you ration then out through the day?

Please, let this man be the Dem. they put up against Bush.

[cake_crumb]

Ah...that 'splains the arrests and our anger at France for pulling a Davis and tipping off a group of terrorists. Because we're not paying attention to al Qaeda.

[D-fendr]

If Bush only wanted to do the politically easy thing, he never would have gone after Iraq.

That took more courage than Dean can conceive of. So he projects onto Bush what he can understand - do what's best for yourself politically.

[bwteim]

Trying to follow the *logic* here.... if "we picked the wrong target" why would it be his greatest fear for us to pull out now?

Oops - forgot - Dean *logic* is at work here.

[Azzurri]

Just last week Dean was saying Osama should get a fair, unbiased trial. Now he's a tough guy.

[dagnabbit]

"They got all excited, but here we are," the former Vermont governor said. "We’ve lost 10 more troops...

Resulting in 10 "high-fives" at Dean HQ