YESTERDAY CANDIDATE KERRY SAID PRESIDENT BUSH “MISLED” ON WMD

Kerry Attacked President Bush. “Kerry said Wednesday that President Bush broke his promise to build an international coalition against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and then waged a war based on questionable intelligence. ‘He misled every one of us,’ Kerry said.” (Ron Fournier, “Kerry Says Bush Misled Americans On War,” The Associated Press, 6/19/03)

George Stephanopoulos: “People are really upset that they feel misled by President Bush on this issue weapons of mass destruction. I know you said you’re agnostic about whether or not he misled the public on weapons of mass destruction. But do you have a hunch on whether you think they hyped the intelligence?”

John Kerry: “George, again, I think it would be irresponsible of me at this point to draw conclusions prior to all the evidence being on the table. What I know is we have to get that evidence. We have to have an investigation to know to a certainty whether or not it was hype, whether we were misled …” (ABC’s “This Week,” 6/15/03)

Kerry Said “If You Don’t Believe In The U.N. ... Or You Don’t Believe Saddam Hussein Is A Threat With Nuclear Weapons, Then You Shouldn’t Vote For Me.” (Ronald Brownstein, “On Iraq, Kerry Appears Either Torn Or Shrewd,” Los Angeles Times, 1/31/03)

Kerry Said Leaving Saddam Hussein “Unfettered With Nuclear Weapons Or Weapons Of Mass Destruction Is Unacceptable.” (Jill Lawrence, “War Issue Challenges Democratic Candidates,” USA Today, 2/12/03)

Kerry Defended Vote In Support Of Use Of Force In Iraq.” “I think Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction are a threat, and that’s why I voted to hold him accountable and to make certain that we disarm him. I think we need to, but it’s not September 11th, folks, and the fact is that what we’ve learned is that the war on terror is much more of an intelligence operation and a law enforcement operation.” (Sen. John Kerry As Quoted On NPR’s “All Things Considered,” 3/19/03)

Kerry Said We Owe It To US Troops To Be Informed Of Saddam Hussein’s WMD Arsenal. “We owe it to America’s parents and our country’s troops … to have our decision on going to war with Iraq informed by the latest threat assessment that cross-analyzes agency intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.” (Faye Bowers, “Iraq’s Pursuit Of Nuclear Weapons Called ‘Unrelenting’,” Deseret News, 9/18/02)

Kerry Said Threat Of Saddam Hussein’s WMD Is Real. “The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but as I said, it is not new. It has been with us since the end of that war, and particularly in the last 4 years we know after Operation Desert Fox failed to force him to reaccept them, that he has continued to build those weapons. He has had a free hand for 4 years to reconstitute these weapons, allowing the world, during the interval, to lose the focus we had on weapons of mass destruction and the issue of proliferation.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/9/02, p. S10171)

Kerry Said Saddam’s Arsenal Of WMD Is Cause Of War. “As bad as he is, Saddam Hussein, the dictator, is not the cause of war. Saddam Hussein sitting in Baghdad with an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction is a different matter.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/9/02, p. S10173)

Kerry Wished For Resolution More Focused On The Removal Of Iraq’s WMD. “The President said: Saddam Hussein must disarm himself, or, for the sake of peace, we will lead a coalition to disarm him. This statement left no doubt that the casus belli for the United States will be Iraq’s failure to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction. I would have preferred that the President agree to the approach drafted by Senators Biden and Lugar because that resolution would authorize the use of force for the explicit purpose of disarming Iraq and countering the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/9/02, p. S10173)

Kerry Said U.S. Should Make Clear We Will Not Be Blackmailed By Iraq’s WMD. “I believe the Senate will make it clear, and the country will make it clear, that we will not be blackmailed or extorted by these weapons, and we will not permit the United Nations an institution we have worked hard to nurture and create to simply be ignored by this dictator.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/9/02, p. S10174)

Kerry Described Iraq’s WMD As A “Real And Grave Threat” To The United States. “Mr. Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran and potential 2004 presidential contender, said Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction posed ‘a real and grave threat’ to the United States.” (Dave Boyer, “Key Senators Of Both Parties Back Bush On Iraq War,” The Washington Times, 10/10/02)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said WMD Destabilize World. “I think all of us are deeply concerned about the degree to which certain countries seem to be contributing to the potential of instability in the world. Obviously, there is nothing more destabilizing or threatening than weapons of mass destruction. We have spent an enormous amount of time and energy focused on Iraq, on Iran, on Russia, on loose nukes, on nuclear materials, and of course on China and on the issue of the transfer of technology to Pakistan.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 9/11/00, p. S8322)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said Saddam Used WMD And Has Intent “To Continue To Do So.” “[T]here are set of principles here that are very large, larger in some measure than I think has been adequately conveyed, both internationally and certainly to the American people. Saddam Hussein has already used these weapons and has made it clear that he has the intent to continue to try, by virtue of his duplicity and secrecy, to continue to do so. That is a threat to the stability of the Middle East. It is a threat with respect to the potential of terrorist activities on a global basis. It is a threat even to regions near but not exactly in the Middle East.” (Sen. John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said We Must Make Clear We Cannot Allow Saddam To Use WMD. “[I]t is imperative for us as a nation to stand our ground and for the western world to make clear that we cannot abide by any nation breaking out, so to speak, with respect to the capacity to possess and use those kinds of weapons. And so that principle is enormous. … But we cannot be pressured into a position that calls on us to give up what are the legitimate interests of our country and of the world with respect to the behavior of Saddam Hussein.” (Sen. John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Stressed Need To Eliminate Saddam’s Weapon Capability. “Saddam Hussein has violated ... that standard [against using weapons of mass destruction] on several occasions previously and by most people’s expectation, no matter what agreement we come up with, may well do so again. The greater likelihood is that we will be called on to send our ships and our troops at one point in the future back to the Middle East to stand up to the next crisis.” (Sen. John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said Decision Must Be Made Concerning Iraq’s WMD. “We’re going to have to make some fundamental decisions about whether to follow a policy of containment or deprive Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.” (Eric Schmitt, “U.N. Arms Inspector Who Quit Is Told He Can’t Make Policy,” The New York Times, 9/4/98)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said Saddam Has Used Hesitancy Of Other Countries To Hold Him Accountable To Influence International Community. “Russia, France and China have consistently been more sympathetic to Iraq’s call for sanctions relief than the United States and Britain. ... These differences over how to deal with Iraq reflect the fact that there is a superficial consensus, at best, among the Perm 5 on the degree to which Iraq poses a threat and the priority to be placed on dismantling Iraq’s weapons capability. ... France, on the other hand, has long established economic and political relationships within the Arab world, and has had a different approach. Russia also has a working relationship with Iraq, and China, whose commitment to nuclear nonproliferation has been less than stellar, has a very different calculus that comes into play. Iraq may be a threat and nonproliferation may be the obvious, most desirable goal, but whether any of these countries are legitimately prepared to sacrifice other interests to bring Iraq to heel remains questionable today, and is precisely part of the calculus that Saddam Hussein has used as he tweaks the Security Council and the international community simultaneously.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/10/98, p. S12287)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Defended President Clinton’s Decision To Bomb Iraq. “Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a decorated Vietnam veteran, said Wednesday that no one should question the ‘legitimacy’ of Clintons decision to bomb Iraq. ‘I am confident that every reasonable member of the United States Congress and reasonable people of this country will understand the legitimacy of this moment. And no one will question that once again, once too many times, it is Hussein who has precipitated this confrontation and no one else.’” (Eric Schmitt, “Many In GOP Voice Suspicion Of Attack Timing,” Topeka Capital-Journal, 12/17/98)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said Use Of Force Against Saddam Justified To Prevent WMD Production. “[Saddam Hussein] cannot be permitted to go unobserved and unimpeded toward his horrific objective of amassing a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. This is not a matter about which there should be any debate whatsoever in the Security Council, or, certainly, in this Nation.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said U.S. Must Do What It Has To Do To Address “Grave Threat.” “[W]hile we should always seek to take significant international actions on a multilateral rather than a unilateral basis whenever that is possible, if in the final analysis we face what we truly believe to be a grave threat to the well-being of our Nation or the entire world and it cannot be removed peacefully, we must have the courage to do what we believe is right and wise.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said U.S. May Have To Go It Alone To Stop Saddam. “Were its willingness to serve in these respects to diminish or vanish because of the ability of Saddam to brandish these weapons, then the ability of the United Nations or remnants of the gulf war coalition, or even the United States acting alone, to confront and halt Iraqi aggression would be gravely damaged.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Warned Of Saddam’s WMD Capabilities. “It is not possible to overstate the ominous implications for the Middle East if Saddam were to develop and successfully militarize and deploy potent biological weapons. We can all imagine the consequences. Extremely small quantities of several known biological weapons have the capability to exterminate the entire population of cities the size of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. These could be delivered by ballistic missile, but they also could be delivered by much more pedestrian means; aerosol applicators on commercial trucks easily could suffice.If Saddam were to develop and then deploy usable atomic weapons, the same holds true.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

Senate Intelligence Committee Member Kerry Said Military Force Should Be Used Against Suspected WMD. “In my judgment, the Security Council should authorize a strong U.N. military response that will materially damage, if not totally destroy, as much as possible of the suspected infrastructure for developing and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, as well as key military command and control nodes. Saddam Hussein should pay a grave price, in a currency that he understands and values, for his unacceptable behavior. This should not be a strike consisting only of a handful of cruise missiles hitting isolated targets primarily of presumed symbolic value.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

Kerry Acknowledged Saddam Working Toward Development Of WMD “For Years.” “If we go to war in the next few days, it will not be because our immediate vital interests are so threatened and we have no other choice. It is not because of nuclear, chemical, biological weapons when, after all, Saddam Hussein had all those abilities or was working toward them for years ….” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record,1/12/91,p. S369)

Kerry Said “Iraq Has Developed A Chemical Weapons Capability.” “Today, we are confronted by a regional power, Iraq, which has attacked a weaker state, Kuwait. … The crisis is even more threatening by virtue of the fact that Iraq has developed a chemical weapons capability, and is pursuing a nuclear weapons development program. And Saddam Hussein has demonstrated a willingness to use such weapons of mass destruction in the past, whether in his war against Iran or against his own Kurdish population.” (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/2/90, p. S14330)

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Don't you dare question my patriotism!

"Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry lashed out at top congressional Republicans...after they assailed him for saying the United States, like Iraq, needs regime change," reported the Associated Press back in April.
"The Republicans have tried to make a practice of attacking anybody who speaks out strongly by questioning their patriotism," complained Kerry, who has tried to make it a practice of attacking anybody who speaks out strongly against Kerry of questioning his patriotism.
Kerry, whose speech compared Bush to Saddam Hussein, hotly denied his speech compared Bush to Saddam Hussein. Or that his speech didn't really mean it.
'And so what if it did?' Democrats ask. Questioning someone's patriotism is simply beyond the pale, they say, hoity-toity. Indeed, the vaguest hint that someone's loyalty might be open to question is deemed unacceptable -- unbecoming of a democracy which should welcome differences of opinion so long as such differences of opinion don't include opinions questioning the wisdom of yelling *Regime Change in America!* while America is at war and soldiers are dying.
'Don't you dare question my patriotism!' screams Kerry. (Incidentally, that's not what Republicans were doing.)
So, how committed is Kerry to this principle -- the notion that questioning someone's patriotism is, in political debate, beyond the pale? Very!
In fact, just to prove how beyond-the-pale he finds it, Kerry Wednesday accused the President of taking America to war based on intelligence that we only now learn was deliberately faked. And Bush likely knew it was faked.
Kerry, fielding "several questions about Iraq from a small group of anti-war Democrats" (AP report, 6/18/03) called Bush a liar -- he "misled every one of us."
'I was dumbfounded, heartbroken and outraged that I'd believed him at all! I could hardly breathe. Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him: 'What do you mean? Why did you lie to me?' As a Senator, I wanted to ring George's neck! It was the most devastating, shocking and hurtful experience of my life!' /Kidding.

"Kerry said Bush made his case for war based on at least two pieces of U.S. intelligence that now appear to be wrong, that Iraq sought nuclear material from Africa and that Saddam's regime had aerial weapons capable of attacking the United States with biological material."
Bush is, in other words, not only a liar -- he's a traitor! A traitor who waged a war that alienated powerful allies like France -- all based on contrived "evidence" wrongly incriminating Saddam! Kerry, in other words, questioned Bush's patriotism. Ah, I love the consistency.
Do we know for a fact that Bush is a traitor? Do we know for a fact that Bush deliberately shaded U.S. intelligence just to send our fighting men and women needlessly to die in Iraq for the sake of Halliburton and Harken energy? Do we know for a fact that Bush sold out his country to corporate interests? Or was he acting "on poor, distorted" intelligence?
Well, we don't know anything for a fact, Kerry admits. Not yet. "I don't have the answer. I want the answer and the American people deserve the answer." Kerry vowed to "get to the bottom of this."
"I believe I can hold President Bush accountable if they have misled us," he promised. "I will not let [liar Bush] off the hook throughout this campaign...because if he lied he lied to me personally." Kerry noted how he's led the charge demanding full congressional investigation.
Kerry, who waged war against the Vietnam war after serving in the Vietnam war, "said his service in the Vietnam war and his experience as a member of the of the Foreign Relations Committee and former member of the Intelligence Committee," asleep at the switch before 9/11, "make him the Democrat best suited to question Bush's efforts on foreign policy." And best suited to question Bush's patriotism in the bargain!

To be fair, Kerry might have noted that, as a Democrat, the party which proudly raised lying to an art-form, he speaks as an expert on lying, one with vast experience.
The White House, reached for comment Thursday, said "Kerry who?"

"A rocket-propelled grenade slammed into a U.S. military ambulance Thursday, killing one American soldier and wounding two others," the AP reports Friday, calling the attack "the latest in a series of attacks on U.S. personnel or their offices."
"The ambulance was transporting a wounded American soldier to a medical facility when it came under fire on a highway about 20 miles south of Baghdad," says the AP.
On Wednesday, "A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a drive-by shooting in central Baghdad" (AP report, 6/18/03), while on Tuesday, "The American military reported that a sniper had gunned down one of its soldiers in Baghdad with a single shot fired in his back" (AP report, 6/17/03).
This has been going on for weeks. Liberal anti-war types felt exhilarated, thrilled at the news of a "burgeoning" Iraqi "resistance" knocking off one U.S. soldier per day. It was like their "One-A-Day" Vitamin. With visions of Vietnam and falling Bush job approval ratings dancing in their heads, they'd seized the news of one grenade attack here, one grenade attack there, as proof -- proof! -- they were right, that Saddam should not have been ousted.
During the 3-week long war -- 3 weeks of horrible "quagmire" and "operation pauses" with U.S. troops hopelessly "bogged down" as "fierce" Iraqi resistance repelled the U.S.-led invasion, forcing U.S. and British war-planners back to the drawing board -- the Left wanted defeat so bad they could taste it. When Baghdad fell April 9, they were crushed. It was gut-wrenching painful, excruciating beyond description. Especially given that Gulf War II saw fewer U.S. casualties than Gulf War I -- not the tens of thousands the Left so desperately craved.
The newsies, however, were bound and determined to downplay the U.S.-led victory, if only to contain the damage to their credibility and limit Bush's victory bounce in the polls. First, it was alleged looting at the Baghdad museum. A gazillion stories crossed the wires, blaming Bush for not providing adequate security. 'Surely, this will sour the American people on the war!' the presstitutes gleefully thought. The presstitutes then commissioned a gazillion polls, and a gazillion polls showed just the opposite -- Americans were more pro-war after the war than before the war! And Bush's approval rate was sky-high as ever. Even after wall-to-wall coverage of looting at the Baghdad museum. We now know the 'Baghdad museum looting' was an inside job that pre-dated the war. No gazillion stories about that.
Then it was how Iraq was plunging into total chaos. A gazillion stories crossed the wires, blaming Bush for not providing adequate security. 'Surely this will sour the American people on the war!' the presstitutes gleefully thought.The presstitutes then commissioned a gazillion polls and a gazillion polls again showed the very opposite -- Americans were unmoved by the all gloom and doomery, Bush's approval rate soaring sky-high as ever.
Then came the endless -- and phony -- handwringing about "failure" to uncover WMD in Iraq. A gazillion stories crossed the wires about "failure" to uncover WMD in Iraq, and how this "proved" Bush was a liar worse than Nixon and that Saddam all along told the truth and that, therefore, war was unjustified. 'Surely this will sour the American people on the war!' the presstitutes gleefully thought. The presstitutes then commissioned a gazillion polls and a gazillion polls again showed the very opposite -- Americans were unmoved by all the Watergate talk nor the torrent about how Bush was a liar, a con-man, a manipulator, a fabler, a trickster, a scoundrel, a shyster, a swindler, a bastard who loves war because war means death, blood and destruction and Bush just relishes death, blood and destruction.
A new FOXNEWS Opinion Dynamics Poll shows that, after weeks and weeks of media handwringing about WMD and Bush's credibility 'gap,' only 12% agree with Democrats and Big Media that Saddam was clean, while 79% maintain Iraq currently has WMD or moved/destroyed WMD before the war (54% believe Iraq either moved or destroyed WMD before the war, only 24% believe Iraq currently has WMD). Only 8% believe "President Bush exaggerated the dangers of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," while 65% give Bush a positive job approval rating -- a figure which hasn't changed in two months. Media pundits predicted Bush's numbers would plummet after a short post-war honeymoon (2 or 3 weeks).
Big Media and the Democrats had hoped that, after weeks and weeks of stories of U.S. soldiers being killed daily in Iraq, the public mood would sour and American resolve might finally crack. Well, the latest polls show their track record for predictions and gauging the public mood remains untainted by facts.
Anyway, that's...
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"

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