Kerry Continues to Criticize Bush on War

NewsMax ^ | 4/9/2003 | Fr. Michael Reilly

[Hugenot]

NewsMax.com's religion editor Fr. Michael Reilly says that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's decision to court the antiwar vote may turn out to be smart politics.

Campaigning in Iowa, Sen. John Kerry is accusing the Bush administration of jumping the gun in Iraq and missing an opportunity to resolve the nuclear standoff in North Korea.

"Had they really been interested in doing this differently, they could have not ratcheted up the troops to the level that they did as early as they did," the Massachusetts Democrat insists, according to the Boston Herald.

"They could have allowed France and others to exhaust their questions, they could've gone into the fall, [they] could've done a whole bunch of things, meanwhile [they] could've paid attention to North Korea, [and] probably have resolved that and then moved forward."

Conventional wisdom dictates that Kerry should tread lightly on the antiwar rhetoric, especially after the backlash over his claim that the U.S needed "regime change" as much as Iraq.

But the Bay State liberal is banking on the fact that almost all the opposition to the war is concentrated among Democratic primary voters - and the gamble seems to be paying off.

Sens. Joe Lieberman and John Edwards have each staked out a more moderate stance towards the war. And they're paying the price for their mainstream views as the party's peaceniks look elsewhere.

While Lieberman slips in the polls and Edwards finds himself heckled by antiwar demonstrators, Kerry has been courting the votes of the antiwar liberals who have the power to deliver the presidential nomination.

He understands that the nineteen months between now and Election Day 2004 is a political eternity.

By then, the war is likely to be a distant memory, just like the first Gulf War was for President Bush's father in 1992.

Remember "It's the economy, stupid?"

[Quix]

May The Lord bless Kerry like the Czar and keep him far away from USA shores the rest of his life.

And may he have terminal laryngitis to the point he never utters another word the rest of his life.

[John Valentine]

!>)

The "he" I was referring to was 'Lil Kimmie, not 'Lil Heinz, but I like your response anyway.

[patriciaruth]

Did anyone else catch the Democrat debate of primary candidates for President hosted by Judy Woodruf on C-span.

We just caught a few minutes when she asked them if they had any changes in their positions on the war now that the TV was showing liberated Iraqis cheering in the street.

Everybody blasted Bush. He's either still wrong on the war or a diplomatic fool or he is taking food out of the mouths of American children in order to make war on Iraq and needs to rescind the entire tax cut.

What was the most Never Never Land moment was when one candidate made a comment saying how proud he was of our young troops sacrificing for their country and Iraq, and at most 30% of the audience clapped for this sentiment.

I am going on record now saying that if Dubya runs in 2004 that he will wipe any Dem's clock. The American people are taking names whether these isolated elitists realize it or not, and they will equate a vote for Bush with a vote for defending America and being proud of our country. And Dems across the board are going to go down.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Kerry is a hughly series looser.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

They are cry baby losers.

DNC Official Web Page: Democrats Speak Out on Iraq.

[Savage Beast]

"they will equate a vote for Bush with a vote for defending America and being proud of our country."

Well I know I certainly will!

A vote for Bush is a vote for defending America!!!

" And Dems across the board are going to go down"

And this will be the best single thing that could possibly happen for our country.

I think you're absolutely right, PR.

[GB]

Agreed. Let's just sit back and let Kerry hang himself with his own rope. Don't scream about it, don't fuss about it, let him run with it. He's made a conscious decision to do this because the people who vote in Dem primaries are the committed leftists who would not be for Bush if he divided the fishes and fed the multitudes, and he thinks this is the best way for him to get the nomination. The problem is, he won't be able to get away with it in a general election campaign ... and if he tries it, THEN we bring out the quotes and make a big deal of it.

[SpinyNorman]

Kerry, when your 20/20 hindsight shows that you did exactly the right thing, it is time to stop beating the dead horse, soon to be known as your campaign. Could have, would have, and should have don't apply when the plan WORKS!! Stop trying to inject yourself into the operation when it is clear that you have no part in it, and would clearly have done the WRONG thing. If it were up to you, Hussein would still be leader of Iraq.

Go buy some plastic medals and throw them over the White House fence, claiming that they are yours. Or do you only get to do that once, Liveshot?

[Cosmo]

All the more reason Dubya needs a new VP for '04 who can run as viable candidate in 2008.

[lilylangtree]

Kerry is barf material.

[duzystopa]

Horseface Kerry may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot!

[snooker]

If your campaign is already kaput, may as well.

We should make this guy up as a cartoon ketchup bottle.

[San Jacinto]

"They could have allowed France and others to exhaust their questions, they could've gone into the fall, [they] could've done a whole bunch of things,

Has "Ketch-up for Brains" Kerry gone off his rocker? Well, I'm still picking him to get the nomination-- at least among the "announced" candidates. I am not ruling HRC out of the picture, either.

[nfldgirl]

Enter Hillary--If the party as a whole senses an overwhelming humiliation if either of the three leaders is nominated, and if she thinks she has a chance of winning the general election, Hillary will enter the race as a "moderate savior" (waving her Iraqi War support like a hanky to prove her moderate credentials to the lapdog mainstream press).

Well, to tell you the truth...I say...let her BRING IT ON! We might as well face this piece of scum now and get it over with. I'd love to see her butt get beat, and to send her back to Arkansas (although she'd probably run a dual campaign...or something to the effect that would enable her to resume her senate seat WHEN she loses her run for the presidency). Yes indeed! I say bring it on you fat ITCH with a B in front! (please forgive my vulgarity....when it comes to hildabeast, it's hard to control myself.)

[fight_truth_decay]

Washington Times

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
December 6, 2002

John Kerry's war record As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, considers a bid for the White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might prefer go nmentioned —and I don't mean his $75 haircuts.

When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They remembered Mr. Kerry as the anti-war activist who testified before Congress during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his ragged band of radicals mocking the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, which depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag.

Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an anti-war activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda.

Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later admitted they weren't his. Now they are displayed on his office wall.

Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for renewed trade relations with Hanoi. At the same time, his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam — an odd coincidence.

As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 (Nation), historian Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography. Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate, claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died.

The State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious freedom. Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone. On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression.

The communists are conducting a pogrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." The Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for the United States, and without them, there might be thousands more American names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.

As Mr. Kerry contemplates a run for the presidency, people must remember that he has fought harder for Hanoi as an anti-war activist and a senator than he did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.

MICHAEL BENGE
Foreign Service officer and former Vietnam POW (1968 to 1973)
Washington

[litany_of_lies]

Re: Kerry's Vietnam and Post-Vietnam Record (profuse thanks for the info I mostly didn't know-it's SO typical that 60s and 70s radicals have pasts that would cause ordinary people to cower in the corner)--

It's enough to make you hope he gets the nomination so he can be savaged about the info in your post in the runup to the convention and the general election.

[Chirodoc]

"But the Bay State liberal is banking on the fact that almost all the opposition to the war is concentrated among Democratic primary voters - and the gamble seems to be paying off."

Anyone remember George McGovern?

[Phlap]

Sen Kerry, the coalition was in Baghdad in less than three weeks and so it must be assumed that had the unwilling (French, Russians Germans etc) joined it would have been even faster, so tell us what arguments you would have used to convince the unwilling to join Operation Iraqi Freedom.

[Marysecretary]

I take your word for it, Noble Jim! There is nothing she wouldn't stoop to to win the White House! I pray for her political destruction and SOON. Billy's as well. These are two of the most evil and destructive people we've ever known in America.

[Marysecretary]

Yeah, his strategery really stinks, too!