- NEW YORK - President
Bush and Sen. John Kerry are offering U.S. voters and the world two starkly
different views on Iraq. The incumbent tells skeptical foreign leaders
the war is part of a global fight on terror and "there is no safety
in looking away." The challenger wants allies to help find a way out.
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- Each man has a political constituency, because Americans
are of two minds on Iraq.
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- A majority of likely voters agree with Bush that the
U.S. should stay as long as it takes to rebuild the nation, polls show.
Most believe the president made the right decision in using military force.
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- But nearly 60 percent say they don't think Bush has a
clear plan for resolving the crisis. A growing number are alarmed by the
casualties.
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- Taking advantage of incumbency, Bush defended his policies
Tuesday from the cavernous hall of the United Nations, spotlighting every
speck of progress in Iraq. Later, in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister
Ayad Allawi, the president criticized Kerry.
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- "My opponent has taken so many different positions
on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all," Bush said.
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- Kerry, campaigning in Florida, said the president's word
was no good with foreign leaders "after lecturing them instead of
leading them to understand how we are all together with a stake in the
outcome of Iraq."
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- After months of complicated and sometimes conflicting
statements, the fourth-term Massachusetts senator has staked out a position
that puts him clearly at odds with Bush. The differences include:
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- _ In an address Monday at New York University, Kerry
said he would not have invaded Iraq had he been president and known that
there were no weapons of mass destruction. "We have traded a dictator
for a chaos that has left America less secure," he said.
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- With Allawi at his side, Bush twisted Kerry's quote to
his advantage. "He said that the world was better off with Saddam
in power," the president said. "I strongly disagree." Later,
Kerry said the world was better off without Saddam, and "the question
is how you do it."
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- _ Kerry suggested the U.S. may be losing the war under
Bush's leadership. "Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic
proportions and if we do not change course there is a prospect of a war
with no end in sight," he said.
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- Bush acknowledged that the road in Iraq is rough, but
he pointed to advances. "Freedom is finding a way in Iraq," the
president said. He dismissed a CIA report that warned of a potential for
civil war.
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- _ Kerry set an ambitious timetable to pull troops out
of Iraq. "We could begin to withdraw U.S. forces starting next summer
and realistically aim to bring all our troops home within the next four
years," he said.
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- Dangerous idea, replied Bush: "If we put an artificial
timetable out there on withdrawal, all the enemy says is, 'We'll wait them
out.'"
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- Kerry said the timetable would be realistic for a U.S.
president who hastened the training of Iraqi troops, spent reconstruction
money approved by Congress, ensured Iraqi elections next year and recruited
help from allies.
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- Not surprisingly, Kerry said he's the only man for that
job. But analysts say there is little chance that skittish allies will
send more troops and money to Iraq, even with a change at the White House.
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- "Initially, it might get you a better atmosphere
in the meeting room," said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East
program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"Once the honeymoon is over - and it will likely be a very quick one
- there's not going to be a rush to send troops into harm's way for indefinite
periods of time against irregular forces."
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- For 21 minutes, U.S. allies sat silently, attentively,
inside the U.N. while Bush linked the war on terror to violence in Jerusalem,
Russia, Spain, Turkey and, of course, Iraq. "There is no safety in
looking away, seeking the quiet life by ignoring the struggles and oppression
of others," he said.
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- As for Kerry, he was in Florida answering questions about
his roundabout record on Iraq. Why vote against authorizing war when Saddam
occupied Kuwait in 1991? Why vote to authorize war in 2002? Why vote against
funding that war? Why so sour on the war now?
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- There are no easy answers. Kerry's own advisers acknowledge
he's taking a risk, because Americans don't like to be told they're losing
a war. It took nearly a decade for public opinion to turn against the Vietnam
War, said a senior Democrat with ties to the campaign, and Kerry has just
six weeks.
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- Bush is in a tough spot, too, as casualties and kidnappings
mount in a war he started.
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- "The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat,"
he said, "It is to prevail."
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- - Ron Fournier has covered politics or the White House
since 1993.
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