- NEW YORK -- Flawed intelligence
commissioned by President George Bush has cost America lives, resources
and allies, said the Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, in
his most scathing attack on the Bush administration to date.
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- Referring to the Senate investigation which found that
the principal claims justifying the invasion of Iraq were fundamentally
wrong and the result of a "global intelligence failure", Mr Kerry
argued that Mr Bush's record had fed cynicism and mistrust of government.
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- "They were wrong and soldiers lost their lives because
they were wrong. And America's paying billions of dollars because they
were wrong. And allies are not with us because they were wrong," Mr
Kerry told the New York Times in one of several interviews with his new
running mate, John Edwards, published yesterday.
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- Mr Edwards added: "My view is that what George Bush
has done in Iraq, both in the lead-up to the war and more importantly his
planning for winning the peace, has cost America dearly and cost the possibility
of success dearly."
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- As senators, Mr Edwards and Mr Kerry last year voted
for the resolution authorising Mr Bush to go to war, but both declined
to say whether they would change their votes if they had known then what
they know now.
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- Asked whether he believed the war on Iraq had made the
country more vulnerable to terrorist attack, Mr Kerry said: "I believe
that the overall conduct of this administration's foreign policy ... has
not made America as safe as we ought to be, given the options available
to us in the aftermath of 9/11."
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- In an interview with the Washington Post, Mr Kerry slammed
the administration for acting in a dishonest manner, that transgressed
a value Americans hold dear.
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- "The value of truth is one of the most central values
in America, and this administration has violated it," he said. "Their
values system is distorted and not based on truth."
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- Meanwhile, Democrats successfully avoided a platform
fight at this month's Boston convention over the war, where supporters
of the leftwing candidate, Dennis Kucinich, had planned to submit a motion
calling for the rapid withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Polls show that
a majority of Democrats would support this position by 56% to 38%, but
the Kerry campaign feared it might alienate moderates and expose divisions
within the party.
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- Republicans seized on Mr Kerry's statements and his record
to reiterate one of their central claims that he is an opportunist who
keeps shifting his stance to please his audience. "Senator Kerry's
position on the war has changed on an almost weekly basis," said Steve
Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman.
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- The interviews ended a week of tightly choreographed
media appearances for the Democratic team since Mr Kerry announced Mr Edwards
as his running mate on Tuesday. With the polls showing a tight but volatile
race, Republican campaigners are expecting the Democrats to surge ahead
into early August, following their convention at the end of this month.
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- "John Kerry should have a lead of more than 15 points
coming out of his convention," wrote President Bush's chief strategist,
Matthew Dowd, in an internal memo.
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- * The Republican convention takes place in New York at
the end of August.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1259158,00.html
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