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Heidi: Senator Kerry, you believe that the Bush Administration hyped and exaggerated the intelligence leading up to the war. Today the president talked about the faulty intelligence. Let's go ahead and listen to a bit of that speech today. (showing excerpt of Bush speech about wrong intelligence) What do you think of his comments?
Kerry: Well, I'm glad that he's finally, after several years acknowledging what many of us have been saying. But the really issue is not just whether or not the intelligence was wrong,it's why intelligence that they knew was wrong, was used in order to exaggerate the situation. That is still unacknowledged and unresolved.
Heidi: I want to play something else that the president said about the situation in Iraq. (showing excerpt of Bush speech about problems that had been fixed). Do you think some of these adjustments have been successful?
Kerry: Yes, I think some have been successful and some are obviously helping. And it's interesting because what many of us have been saying in our criticism over the last two years was exactly what be were hearing from the Iraqis and from our own generals. And we would quote our own generals to the administration but they have refused to move until now. I'm delighted that the president has finally acknowledged that.
Heidi: I have to ask you about that the Republicans condemn you for, for some of the recent comments you made about the American troops (reading the Kerry “terrorizing kids” quote).
Kerry: Obviously I have said it before in a difference way, but I said the same thing essentially which is that to the families that see those troops coming to their homes in the dead of night, everybody here understands, it's very upsetting to them. Our own generals, General Sanchez said that it was causing a counter-reaction, that it's counterproductive. I'm simply quoting here one of our own generals who said: “Iron-fisted policies” That's a general speaking about the policies. And what I'm trying to say is that Americans shouldn't be the ones conducting a lot of those house searches, a lot of those efforts, except under certain circumstances where I understand our special forces need to do it with respect of very hard intelligence. But the Iraqis sort of be policing the streets, policing Iraq and standing up for Iraq.
Heidi: But are they ready, Senator? Isn't this the heart of this discussion?
Kerry: No. There are lots of them who are ready, and we have been told for months after months of the thousands upon thousands who have been trained. Look, we are not asking them to fight World War II. We are not asking them to go out there against an armed resistance that's got trenches. What we are asking them to do is to provide basic security around buildings. The fact is that you ought to be able to put more people out there to protect Iraqis in the Iraqi streets. And I don't think you need Americans doing some of the patrols that they're doing...
And the Heidi person cut him of at this moment. But he still had a bright smile on his face at the end.
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