Posted on 08/10/2004 1:50:43 PM PDT by ambrose
Bush jumps on Kerry war backtrack
Aug 11, 2004
US president Bush has claimed political vindication after Democratic rival John Kerry said he would have authorised military action in Iraq even knowing what he knows today.
"Almost three years after he voted for the war in Iraq, and almost 240 days after switching position and declaring himself the anti-war candidate, my opponent has found a new nuance," Bush told a campaign rally here.
"He now agrees it was the right decision to go into Iraq," said Bush, whose handling of the military operation has been a major issue in his quest for re-election in November.
Kerry voted to authorise force in Iraq but later turned critical of the war, lambasting Bush for the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and establish a link between Baghdad and al-Qaeda terrorists.
Under pressure to say whether he would vote the same way today, Kerry told reporters on Tuesday: "Yes, I would have voted for the authority, I believe it's the right authority for a president to have."
But speaking to reporters while campaigning at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Massachusetts senator said that as president he would have used the authority "very differently from the way President Bush has."
"My question to President Bush is, why did he rush to war without a plan to win the peace? Why did he rush to war on faulty intelligence and not do the hard work necessary to give America the truth?
"Why did he mislead America about how he would go to war, why has he not brought other countries to the table in order to support American troops in the way that we deserve it and relieve a pressure from the American people?"
I'm trying toupdate my scorecard. Is this a flip or a flop?
I think I can unambiguously answer:
Yes!
Hopefully, President Bush will POUND Kerry about his Senate record and the Swift Boat Vets will POUND Kerry on his war record.
I just cannot understand how anyone can believe a word this man says..... It's just pitiful.
Good.
John F*ckin' is the only candidate who could sound like Howard Dean AND George Bush in the space of seven months! (laughing)
Although it is August 11 in New Zealand, Carl Cameron on Foxnews, at 4pm EDT Aug 10, traveling with the Kerry campaign, says that a spokesman for Kerry has retracted the retraction!
Count it as yet another time when the brightest man in the USA was unable to grasp the reality (was misled).
This is a flip on the previous flop from the flip of when he voted aganst it before he voted for it flop from his 1968 flip. I think.
The real questions are 1) what idiot on earth thinks that 14 months is a rush to anything. 2) Sen Kerry you were on the intelligence committee. Why did you ALLOW faulty intelligence to be passed on? Why didn't you scrutinize the information that was being presented? Or were you Cambodia Dreaming?
Where is our press on this story? Oh, that's right, they are the Kerry Ball Washers.
The answer to your question Senator, is the President stuck to his guns and never wavered from the fortrightness of his decision. Give him some credit. Whereas you have been ALL over the place. Against the war and now you're all of a sudden FOR the war. You think the American people have a low regard for the truth that you might yet get away with it. Perhaps you're right, if the polls are to believed, they actually reward you for such brazenness. Keep it up, Senator!
Thanks for clearing that up. I’ll mark it as a sacrifice flop.
Would someone please:
a) point to where Kerry is quoted directly as saying he would have done the same thing? (he may flip yet again) and
b) provide context. I've heard it said he claimed he would invade ven if he knew there was no WMDs. So is his sticking point that he didn't get the blessings of the French?
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Well, yes and no. It all depends on how you looked at it before you look at it.
Even Kerry can't try to be all things to all people at once. The Walter Daum types are going to wind up hating him for sounding like Bush but without the courage.
This just in:
FDR went to war without the support of Germany and Italy. I guess that was unilateral too, Senator.
"....I'm trying toupdate my scorecard. Is this a flip or a flop?...."
I'm not sure....I don't think he knows either.
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