Its a PANTY-RAID
Posted on 10/30/2004 11:56:51 AM PDT by ellery
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - John Kerry criticized President Bush on Friday for failing to capture Osama bin Laden as a new videotape of the terrorist leader surfaced just before the election. Bush accused the Democrat of "shameful" second-guessing in the face of threats by America's deadly foe.
The broadcast of the bin Laden tape jolted the campaign's closing days, accentuating the terrorism theme with a reminder of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and Kerry revived his contention that Bush missed an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden during the Afghan war.
"I believe I can run a more effective war on terror than George Bush," Kerry asserted.
Bush told an Ohio rally: "My opponent continues to say things he knows are not true." He said, "It's especially shameful in light of the new tape from America's enemy."
Bush and Kerry both made hurried TV appearances after the tape emerged.
"Let me make this very clear," Bush said in Toledo, Ohio, standing next to Air Force One. "Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country. I'm sure Senator Kerry agrees with this."
Kerry, too, said, "My reaction is that all of us ... are completely united." But he criticized Bush for not capturing bin Laden earlier, and he added pointedly, "I believe I can run a more effective war on terror than George Bush."
Kerry has asserted throughout the campaign that U.S. forces could have run down bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains in late 2001 if they had gone after him on the ground, and he has blamed Bush for the decision to let Afghan forces lead that chase.
"He didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down Osama bin Laden," Kerry said in an interview with WISN in Milwaukee. "He outsourced the job."
Bush responded, at a rally in Columbus, Ohio: "It's the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking," and he quoted his Afghan war commander, the now-retired Gen. Tommy Franks, as saying intelligence reports at the time were unclear about bin Laden's whereabouts.
Kerry's account "does not square with reality," Bush said.
It was unclear what if any impact bin Laden hoped to have on the U.S. election. While Bush vowed four years ago to get bin Laden "dead or alive," he now rarely mentions the terrorist leader, speaking mostly about deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, blamed for beheadings and other violence in Iraq.
On the videotape, aired by the Arab television station Al-Jazeera, bin Laden addresses Americans: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands."
Bush said intelligence officials continued to analyze the tape. The administration said it believed the tape was authentic and had been made recently.
The president said, "We are at war with these terrorists and I am confident that we will prevail."
"As Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists," Kerry said in Florida, standing next to his campaign plane. "They are barbarians, and I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes, period.
But he went on, in the radio interview, to question Bush's judgment in the Tora Bora chase and to say he would do a better job keeping the United States safe.
"Democrat, Republican, there's no such thing," Kerry said. "There's just America and we are all united in hunting down and capturing or killing those who conducted that raid and we always knew that that was Osama bin Laden."
"My policy is there's no such thing as negotiation with terrorists," the Democratic candidate said. "And terrorists, terrorism are going to be hunted down and killed, we are united on that."
"I am absolutely confident I have the ability to make America safer," he said.
Americans are divided on whether bin Laden is likely to be captured - ever. Four in 10 say no. People are also split on whether it is essential to capture him to successfully conclude the war on terrorism.
Bin Laden's remarks quickly overshadowed the scripted campaign events of the day for both the president and his Democratic rival, injecting new uncertainty into a race already difficult to predict.
With Bush and his wife Laura behind him on the stage in Ohio, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the spirited rally that the president was is "defending this country with all his heart and soul."
"America is back," he said. "America's back from the attack on our homeland, we are back from the attack on our economy, and we are back from the attack on our own way of life."
Increasingly, both sides have turned their attention to mobilizing for Election Day, hoping that intense voter registration drives would swell Tuesday's turnout to record levels. In Ohio, Republicans lost a court appeal to block tens of thousands of voter registrations.
Candidates for 34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats campaigned through the final few days of their races, as well. Republicans are favored to retain their majority in the House. Aides to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota said they had identified all of the estimated 10,000 undecided voters in his state by name, underscoring the closeness of his campaign for re-election.
And let's not forget that the terrorism threat is "exaggerated." How can almost half the population of this country possibly consider this man for the office of President? That's more frightening than any Halloween monsters!
noun
Ugly ghastly looking character in ADAMS FAMILY.
Source: MY Advanced Learner's Dictionary
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm
did ya'll read what cronkite said. its on drudge. lol
The thing that is really sticking in the craws of Bush haters worldwide is that they finally have to face the fact that Bush and Cheney weren't piloting the planes by remote control.
This belief that Bush and Cheney actullay did the "raid" has been the whole basis of their political outlook on the world, and now Osama has tossed it in the rubbish.
They are deeply saddened and confused now.
The discussion of techicnical the definitions of attack vs raid are &@$%*!% asinine in the context of the way the president (or would be president) speaks to the nation.
Quoting from President Franklin Roosevelt's "Day oy Infamy" address to the Congress of the United States: Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live forever in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
Forgive me for saying this, but the positive side of that will be the end of Kerry type administrations for a long, long time.
I am also deeply saddened for the typo on "actually".
Sigh, many typos. The hazards of one-handed typing while eating.
The military defines a "raid" as an attack with a planned withdraw. It can be on a small scale, or a large scale--the size of the element used in the attack and the level of destruction/casualties are irrelevant to the use of the term.
I agree with you that making a major "to-do" over his use of the word "raid" is a waste of time and energy. There is plenty of other stuff Kerry can be nailed on.
--A sceered sounding Hanoi Johnny Boy accusing the US DoD of being a Benedict Arnold Company in Milwaukee the other day.
Kerry ought to listen to himself and stop saying the people DOING the "hunting down" are :
Because HE's the one who're REALLY saying "The terrorists hate you and I'm with the terrorists!"
"A raid". I hate him.
Raid by definition is also something that causes only a small damage. This is implied in the defition.
Apparently Kerry thinks that the mass murder of 3000 Americans is just a small, insignificant event.
The dry military term "raid" might be acceptable when coming from a man we know at least cares about the deaths. Since Kerry has shown no concern for the deaths caused by the attacks on 9/11/01, NOR shown any concern for the deaths of our soldiers OR our allies fighting the war on terror, and of course helped CAUSE death and suffering to our POWs in Vietnam and returning veterans...it's just insult to injury.
Jeepers, that slipped my mind! "Raid" might not sound bad at all even from him if he hadn't said that, either.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1262956/posts
CRONKITE: KARL ROVE BEHIND BIN LADEN TAPE
Drudge Report ^ | 10/30/04` | Matt Drudge
Posted on 10/30/2004 1:37:06 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
CRONKITE: KARL ROVE BEHIND BIN LADEN TAPE Sat Oct 30 2004 16:31:19 ET
Former CBSNEWS anchorman Walter Cronkite believes Bush adviser Karl Rove is possibly behind the new Bin Laden tape.
Cronkite made the startling comments late Friday during an interview on CNN.
Cronkite said he is "inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing."
Interviewer Larry King did not ask Cronkite to elaborate on the provocative election eve accusation.
Developing...
"...we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden."
"I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down and capture or kill the terrorists..."
"It's absolutely impossible and irresponsible to suggest that if I were president, he wouldn't necessarily be gone..."
Kerry says he's "absolutely confident" he has the ability "to be able to make America safer."
"This is absolutely the most important election of our lifetime."
"Yes, in the sense that I don’t believe the president took us to war as he should have, yes, absolutely.”
"Absolutely. As president, I will enact a College Opportunity tax credit on up to $4,000 a year for four years of tuition at a public university."
And, from the Hall of Fame:
"Back then, ribbons, medals were absolutely interchangeable."
Kerry fails to realize that our military fights in the 21st century lessons learned from russia fighting and losing thousands in the mountains of Tora Bora meant we did exactly what the military planners the troops on the ground were supposed to do given the facts they had.
Every time Kerry puts the military down it makes my blood boil. He is using his 1971 playbook.
As if I didn't already know it, this confirms that Kerry is a wimp -- and a cretinous unctuous nitwitted toad, if you know what I mean.
Yes, that's exactly what he's been saying all along. By talking about how Iraq is the "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time," that's what he's saying.
He is such an anus.
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