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Bush, Kerry Trade Criticism Over Iraq Invasion
U.S. President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential challenger Senator John Kerry (Mass.) traded barbs this week over the president’s decision to invade Iraq, according to reports (see GSN, July 12). In response to public requests by Bush to say whether he would have supported the war knowing about the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Kerry said Monday that he would have, but accused the president of conducting the war poorly. “I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have,” Kerry said. “Why did we rush to war without a plan to win the peace?” he rhetorically asked Bush. “Why did you rush to war on faulty intelligence and not do the hard work necessary to give America the truth?” Kerry added (Jim VandeHei, Washington Post, Aug. 10). During a campaign stop in Florida yesterday, Bush mocked Kerry’s response, according to the Washington Post. “After months of questioning my motives and my credibility, Senator Kerry agrees with me that, even though we have not found the stockpile of weapons we all believed were there, knowing everything we know today, he would have voted to go into Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power,” Bush said. “I want to thank Senator Kerry for clearing that up,” he added. During a campaign stop in Nevada, Kerry continued to question Bush’s handling of the war. “I thought the United States needed to stand up to [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein, and I voted to stand up to Saddam Hussein,” he said. “I thought we ought do it right. We ought to reach out to other countries. We ought to build an international coalition. We ought to exhaust the opportunities available to us,” Kerry added (Dan Balz, Washington Post, Aug. 11).
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