Posted on 09/23/2004 12:13:47 PM PDT by ambrose
Kerry: Allawi Abets Bush in Putting on 'Best Face'
Thu Sep 23, 2004 02:17 PM ET
By Patricia Wilson COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic White House challenger John Kerry said on Thursday interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had abetted President Bush in putting the "best face" on an Iraq policy in disarray.
Pounding his Republican rival on the war and its chaotic aftermath for a fourth consecutive day, Kerry also ridiculed Bush for leaving New York after his address to the U.N. General Assembly this week without meeting enough foreign leaders.
The Massachusetts senator questioned assertions by Allawi, a key ally of the Bush administration, that Iraq would hold elections in January despite the flaring insurgency and that "we are succeeding in Iraq."
"I think the prime minister is obviously contradicting his own statement of a few days ago when he said that terrorists are pouring into the country," Kerry told reporters.
"The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy, but the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operations and the troops all tell a different story."
Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot accused Kerry of taking "political cheap shots" and "denigrating our allies in the important struggle against a global terror network."
Despite battling a cold that caused him to cancel two public appearances in Iowa on Thursday, Kerry stopped at a fire station in Ohio -- a critical battleground state in the Nov. 2 presidential election -- to attack Bush for failing to level with Americans about the situation in Iraq.
'ADMINISTRATION IN DISARRAY'
He cited conflicting statements made by administration officials -- including Bush who said a few days ago that there were just a "handful" of insurgents -- and a report by the former deputy director of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq who wrote that the United States was "losing the peace."
"We have an administration in disarray," Kerry said. "The secretary of defense saying one thing and being corrected. The president saying one thing and being contradicted by the prime minister. The secretary of state saying one thing and being contradicted by the president."
"America needs leadership that tells the truth," he said.
Kerry, who has accused Bush of living in "fantasy land" on Iraq, said the White House needed to convene an international summit and bring in other countries to help with security and reconstruction.
"The president skedaddled out of New York so quickly he barely had time to talk to any leaders," he said. "We need to behave like we're at war."
Bush met five foreign leaders and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan during his two-day visit to the United Nations. He offered an unapologetic defense of the Iraq war and urged skeptical world leaders to help Iraq become a democracy. His speech was met largely by silence save for polite applause at the end.
"A president's true test of leadership is how to respond when things are going wrong," Kerry said. "You need to be prepared to tell the truth. I think that a president who fails to admit his mistakes is a president who proves that he doesn't know how to make the course correct."
Speaking before a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress on Thursday, Allawi insisted democratic elections would take place in Iraq in January as scheduled, but Kerry called that unrealistic.
"The United States and the Iraqis have retreated from whole areas of Iraq," he said. "There are no-go zones in Iraq today. You can't hold an election in a no-go zone."
This POS cares not who dies or who lives as long as he thinks he has a shot at being POTUS!
Kerry wants to demoralize this country and Iraq.
Pathetic.
Wow. Where did Hugo Chavez get the bitchin' John Kerry costume?
Kerry will flip-flop on this when his rating drop lower.
Just my thought but I'll bet even money that if Kerry somehow does get elected his Secret Service nickname will be POS!
I saw him and I heard him! This Kerry guy is the biggest loser who ever came down the pike. The hang dog look and forboding body language was the most negative thing I have ever seen in any campaign. Look out DNC, you are losing bigtime and whats more, you will be out of power for the next fourty years!
In more rational days, I think he could be investigated, if not arrested for treason.
Kerry is running a body-bag campaign. The more the better for him.
Kerry: Tell the truth.
Kerry lied (again) yesterday when he said there are no links between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
He obviously has not read the Senate Intelligence Committee Report or the 9/11 Commission Report, both of which cited the many connections between Iraq and AQ.
A high ranking Iraqi fedayeen soldier attended at least one pre planning 9/11 meeting with AQ.
Saddam knew 9/11 was coming and where we were going to be hit.
Even the Clinton Justice Department was able to obtain an indictment against OBL which cited the terrorist's ties to Iraq.
A federal judge has granted two 9/11 families a multi-million dollar judgement - against Iraq.
During the 90's, the mainstream press wrote about the world's alarm at the growing relationship between Saddam and Osama bin Laden. Old Media thinks we can't look these things up.
Hundreds of articles and links in this thread.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1224050/posts
John Kerry is now, and has always been, a traitor and a liar.
When a country is at war we want Congressmen, regardless
of party, to back up the government of the
United States.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , 1944
"I shall give the Republician orators some more
opportunities to say 'Me, too.' "
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Campaign speech 1944
Kerry is now getting his briefing papers
from Lucy Ramirez. Just kinko copies, you know.
Not the originals.
Of course, if only Kerry had told the Prez the best restaurants to find them in...
Would that be the same CIA that Kerry couldn't trust over WMDs? Or the one that wasn't needed and had to be cut to the bone? Or the one whose meetings Kerry couldn't find time to attend?
Kerry's found a way to build effective alliances...by insulting our allies.
I am now convinced that he wants us to lose, just like he did in Viet Nam.
"A president's true test of leadership is how to respond when things are going wrong," Kerry said. "You need to be prepared to tell the truth. I think that a president who fails to admit his mistakes is a president who proves that he doesn't know how to make the course correct."
Kerry, here is a tip: Have your doctor correct your medication.
Kerry is running his campaign the same way he ran his campaign against the Vietnam war. The guy appears to have no moral values or propriety in what he says. He continues to give aide and comfort to the enemies of America!
Could that be why he won't sign form 180, that he was being investigated for his treasonous actions while still wearing the US Navy uniform? It's just possible John Kerry was not given an honorable discharge to begin with - something took seven years for an honorable one to come through.
Freep the Kerry campaign headquarters and ask why Kerry won't sign form 180.
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