Kerry Takes Bush to Task Over Security [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-kerry28feb28,1,876192.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Democrat John F. Kerry charged Friday that President Bush sent troops to war unprepared and pursued policies that have undermined the U.S. military and the nation's safety — one of his harshest attacks yet on Bush's national security credentials.

In an address at UCLA days before the California primary, the front-runner for his party's presidential nomination derided what he termed the administration's "armchair hawks." And he said, "George Bush inherited the strongest military in the world. And I know and members of the military know ... that George Bush has in fact weakened that military by overextending it."

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Kerry criticized Bush's handling of unrest in the Middle East, calling the peace process "paralyzed," and he accused the president of shortchanging U.S. troops in Iraq.

"Far too often, troops have been going into harm's way without the weapons and the equipment they depend on....," Kerry said. "Families across America have had to collect funds from their neighbors to buy body armor that is state-of-the-art for their loved ones in uniform, because George Bush has failed to provide it."

Kerry charged that American forces had Osama bin Laden in their grasp more than two years ago at Tora Bora, but that "George Bush held U.S. forces back, and instead called on Afghan warlords with no loyalty to our cause to finish the job."