WP: Kerry Hits Foreign Policy – Bush Alienates Allies, Senator Says

[kskiska]

Saturday, February 28, 2004; Page A01

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27 -- Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) issued a broad condemnation of President Bush's foreign policy Friday, denouncing his management of military action in Iraq and the nation's fight against terrorism and accusing him of alienating allies and stoking anti-American sentiment around the world.

Kerry, the front-running candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, told an overflow crowd of several hundred students and faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles that Bush "has no comprehensive strategy for victory in the war on terror -- only an ad hoc strategy to keep our enemies at bay."

(snip)

"Day in and day out, George Bush reminds us that he is a war president and that he wants to make national security the central issue of this election," Kerry said. "Well, I am ready to have this debate. I welcome it."

(snip)

In Iraq, Kerry said, U.S. troops are "bogged down in a deadly guerrilla war with no exit in sight," and in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion the country has become "a major magnet and center for terror."

(snip)

At one point during the speech, he also accused Bush of neglecting the safety of U.S. troops in Iraq, saying, "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 failed to provide it."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12301-2004Feb27.html

[Voltaire99]

1. I'd buy this if Kerry hadn't voted for Bush's rotten war

Today, it merely sounds like posturing. Where was Kerry when it counted?

The argument against BushCo's imperial adventure is sound; it's a pity the case is being made by a co-adventurer. Kerry could go a long way toward gaining credibility on these matters if he a) renounced his vote for war; b) backed immediate withdrawal from Iraq along with a return to respecting international borders; and c) abandoned the illegitimate framework (the endless and perpetual "war on terror") by which BushCo has deceived the nation and terrorized the world.

Instead, Kerry is playing the "Bush fooled us all" card, an intellectually empty position. If you were fooled by Bush, more fool you. In fact, Kerry gives every evidence of having been too smart for that. What, then, explains his votes for war, the Patriot Act, and the runaway Fatherland Security apparatus? Such are the traps of warrior liberalism. As a fundamentalism, it's nearly as bad as neo-conservatism.

[paulk]

3. co-adventurer?

What's your point? More leftist tripe that Kerry=Bush? You want intellectual emptyness? Read your post.

[Voltaire99]

5. "Emptyness" is in the eye of the beholder, my friend

http://counterpunch.com/cockburn02202004.html

An excerpt:

"These weapons represent an unacceptable threat", (Kerry) bellowed last year. Not just nuclear weapons of mass destruction. "Iraq has some lethal and incapacitating agents and is capable of quickly producing and weaponizing a variety of such agents, including anthrax, for delivery on a range of vehicles such as bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers, and covert operatives which could bring them to the United States homeland." Kerry's bottom line: "The President laid out a strong, comprehensive, and compelling argument why Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs are a threat to the United States and the international community."

[paulk]

6. "Counterpunch" is the very definition of intellectual emptiness

and cherry picking for quotes is a tactic more deserving of the right wing. Put it in context, ok?

http://www.independentsforkerry.org/uploads/media/kerry-iraq.html

Once again, what's your point? Just another gratuitous smear on Kerry, or .....?

So, what's your solution? Four more years of Bush, then when the people rise up we can put... who? - the editors of counterpunch in the White House?

[dennis4868]

2. did Kerry....

ever even mention how Bush lied about WMD?

[capriccio]

4. Has he no shame?

Did Kerry even bother to wear a hairshirt during this speech?
Did he not even offer one of his daughters up to Dennis Kucinich?
Did he not even offer all his wife's money to GreenPeace?
Couldn't he have called Bush Shrub just once?
Why didn't he spill the beans on Skull & Bones?
Will he never ever get down on his knees and beg forgiveness for his Iraq vote?
Has he no spine? No conscience?
Sweet, Jesus, save us from voting for this man. We're melting..,we're melting.

[phillybri]

7. Bravo!

Great post. You put a lot of this Kerry=Bush bullshit into the perspective it deserves....