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is that this President just described one type of mistake, but what he says is even knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction, even knowing there was no imminent threat, even knowing there was no connection to Al Qaida, he still would have done everything the same way. Those are his words. Now I would not. So what I am trying to do is just talk the truth to the American people and to the world. Truth is what good policy is based on, what leadership is based on."
- John F. Kerry 9/30/2004 (emphasis mine)
What was the one type of mistake Bush described? In Bush's own words:
"Because since we achieved such a rapid victory, more of the Saddam loyalists were around, in other words, we thought we'd have more of them going in. But because Tommy Franks did such a great job in planning the operations, we moved rapidly and a lot of the Baathist and Saddam loyalists laid down their arms and disappeared. We thought they would stay and fight. We're fighting them now."
Despite getting the words victory and good job into his remarks like a good propagandist, what he described was an admission of grossly bad planning and incompetence. He sounds like a old-world general complaining the other side didn't line up in the field at the appointed time. The enemy met overwhelming force with guerrilla tactics - in the Middle East, no less - who would have thought it? And the contingency was what?
Truth is what good policy is based on, amen. Tell that to anyone who thinks Bush won the debate.
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