Posted on 11/12/2005 5:21:16 AM PST by ShadowDancer
Kerry Chides Bush For 'Fear And Smear' On Veterans Day
POSTED: 7:39 am EST November 12, 2005
UPDATED: 7:53 am EST November 12, 2005
TOBYHANNA, Pa. -- President George W. Bush strongly rebuked congressional critics of his Iraq war policy Friday, accusing them of being "deeply irresponsible" and sending the wrong signal both to America's enemy and to U.S. troops.
"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges," Bush said in his most combative defense yet of his rationale for invading Iraq in March 2003.
Bush's charges brought a forceful response from senior Democrats in Congress, who accused the president of misleading the country about the justification for war. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who ran unsuccessfully against Bush last year, accused the president of playing "the politics of fear and smear."
Bush's speech was part of a coordinated White House effort to bolster the president's waning credibility and dwindling support for the war, in which more than 2,000 U.S. troops have died.
As casualties have climbed, Bush's popularity has dropped. His approval rating now is at 37 percent in the latest AP-Ipsos poll, an all-time low point for his presidency.
"When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support," Bush said in a Veterans Day speech at Tobyhanna Army Depot.
"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began."
Bush's remarks brought a few jabs from fellow Republicans as well as a sharp counterattack from Democrats.
In a speech in Philadelphia, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., criticized how the war has been presented to Americans - both by the media and the White House. Afterward, Santorum said the war has been "less than optimal" and "maybe some blame could be laid" at the White House. "Certainly, mistakes were made," Santorum said.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who is weighing a run for president in 2008, has said he agrees with Democrats who are pressing the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to move forward with an investigation into whether the administration manipulated intelligence.
"I was probably the main driver on the Republican side because I thought we needed the answers to whether intelligence was misused, intentionally or unintentionally," Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald in a story published Friday.
Defending the march to war, Bush said foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, had weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations, he noted, had passed more than a dozen resolutions citing Saddam's development and possession of such weapons.
Accusing his critics of making false charges, Bush said: "These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will.
"As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Democrats would continue to press for a full airing of the facts about prewar intelligence and said asking tough questions was his party's way of standing with the troops.
"Americans seek the truth about how the nation committed our troops to war because the decision to go to war is too serious to be entered into under faulty pretenses," Reid said.
White House officials fanned out to television appearances to reinforce Bush's argument and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman added his voice. He said Democrats who once worried that Saddam was amassing weapons of mass destruction now want an investigation of the intelligence. "Maybe this investigation will reveal that they were brainwashed," Mehlman said in a speech to be delivered Friday evening in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Criticism about prewar intelligence has been stoked by the recent indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in the CIA leak investigation.
The probe aims to identify who leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer whose husband, a former ambassador, alleged that the administration relied on faulty intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Kerry accused the president of playing politics on a holiday set aside to honor veterans.
"This administration misled a nation into war by cherry-picking intelligence and stretching the truth beyond recognition. That's why Scooter Libby has been indicted. That's why a statement in the State of the Union Address was retracted," said Kerry, who voted in 2002 to give Bush the authority to wage war but later voted against additional funds for Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction.
"It's a dangerous day for our national security when an administration's word is no good," Kerry said.
Bush chose to go on the road this Veterans Day to make his forceful defense of the war, leaving Cheney in Washington to attend traditional wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., accused Bush of using Veterans Day as "a campaign-like attempt to rebuild his own credibility by tearing down those who seek the truth about the clear manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War."
Bush's political adviser Karl Rove, who is still under the cloud of the CIA leak investigation, hopped Air Force One to attend the speech, an indication that it was a political event.
Bush shared the stage with a tan Army depot vehicle, and banners behind him read "Strategy for Victory." "Hail to the Chief," which is rarely played to mark Bush's arrival, blared from speakers in the warehouse.
This is true, Kerry, so why are you doing everything in your power to damage the credibility of the administration? We all realize you were a low 'C' student, but try to concentrate ... repeat ten times ... "National security, GOOD! ... Aiding and abetting enemy, BAD!"
"It's a dangerous day for our national security when an administration's word is no good," Kerry said.
You're right johnnieeeeee and that's why you lost the election because YOUR word was no good. Remember the Swift Boat Vets.... Each time you open your mouth johneeeeeeeee it comes back to bite you in your pompous A__ so it's better to just be quiet instead of making a fool of yourself. But then again you ARE a fool. I forgot.
"It's a dangerous day for our national security when an administration's word is no good," Kerry said."
The remark of a weasel.
Mr. Kerry, you seem to be the primary proponent of the story that Bush lied about WMDS - by way of your foreign policy advisor, Joseph Wilson. How do you explain your prior statements about Hussein and WMDS? And tell us again about Christmas in Cambodia.
Good name for him.
Interesting title. No bias there.
And I accuse Kerry of hiring Joe Wilson and getting Wilson to write an NYT article claiming there was nothing to the yellowcake story. Show me where I'm wrong.
Editorial comments like these just boil my blood. Thank God for the MSM's waning influence.
Kerry Chides Bush For 'Fear And Smear' On Veterans Day
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1520730/posts
Shame on you, Senator Kerry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1520737/posts
Lifelong Independent Voter AND a Viet Nam Vet
helping the Republican Party, again,
just like on Nov 2 2004 PING
Honorable Viet Nam Vet's
ALWAYS do what's best for their country,
including calling for the outing a of traitor
in the US Senate.
Honorable Viet Nam Vet's
do what's needed to protect President Bush
from attacks from the traitor and his followers.
There is no need to impeach Hanoi Kerry from the US Senate
He is there illegally!
WAKEUP AMERICA!
For those who "forgot" what Hanoi Kerry
did in the past read on and learn the truth.
Hanoi Kerry was still a USNR officer while he:
gave false hearsay testimony to Congress
negotiated with the enemy
helped the US lose a war
abetted in the deaths of millions
created a hostile environment for all servicemen
Why is Kerry still in the US Senate?
This is in violation of
U.S. Constitution Amendment 14 Sec 3
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxiv.html
And the FBI has proof of his treason.
Hanoi Kerry Timeline of a traitor
includes FBI files
May 1970
Kerry and Julia traveled to Paris, France and met with Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, the Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam (PRG), the political wing of the Vietcong, and other Viet Cong and Communist Vietnamese representatives to the Paris peace talks, a trip he now calls a "fact-finding" mission.
(U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953, declares it illegal for a U.S. citizen to go abroad and negotiate with a foreign power.)
http://www.archive-news.net/Kerry/JK_timeline.html
a) A person charged with absence without leave or missing movement in time of war,
or with any offense punishable by death,
may be tried at any time without limitation.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ucmj.htm#*%20843.%20ART.%2043.%20STATUTE%20OF%20LIMITATIONS
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
There ya go ... I fixed it for you.
BTTT
Santorum's drifting over into Hagel territory in order to save his skin.
johnny boy should heed a bit of age old advice .....
Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Don't insult snakes that way. Although as a SandRat I guess I can understand your antipathy for them. :)
This was a Military speech on an Army Installation. Normally Bush doesn't care for all that pomp, ruffles and flourishes, etc. (Unlike our Man RR, who did seem to like them), but he knows that they are absolutely called for when the Commander in Chief appears before the troops.
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