- President George W Bush's aides were scrambling last
night to soften the impact of a major blow to his re-election campaign
after his former chief official in Baghdad gave a damning criticism of
the administration's record and policies in Iraq.
-
- In an attack that stunned Washington, Paul Bremer, the
"proconsul" of Iraq until the handover in late June, said the
administration had made two serious mistakes. It had not sent enough troops
and had compounded this by not curbing the violence and lawlessness that
erupted after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
-
- "We paid a big price for not stopping it because
it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," Mr Bremer said in an
address in West Virginia. "We never had enough troops on the ground."
-
- His comments were remarkable because they echoed the
criticism of the administration by Senator John Kerry, Mr Bush's Democratic
challenger. Sen Kerry is using every opportunity to highlight the difficulties
in Iraq to mount a late surge in the presidential election race.
-
- Mr Bremer's comments were a second blow to Mr Bush and
his re-election team in as many days following the admission by the defence
secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, that he had seen no "strong hard evidence"
linking Saddam to al-Qa'eda.
-
- The insinuation that Saddam had ties to Osama bin Laden
was a key part of the Bush administration's public relations offensive
in the countdown to the war last year.
-
- Mr Rumsfeld softened his remarks yesterday, saying that
disagreement still remained among intelligence analysts. "I have seen
the answer to that question migrate in the intelligence community over
the period of a year in the most amazing way."
-
- But Mr Kerry's staff were cock-a-hoop last night that
they had found two major new angles of attack against Mr Bush for whom
Iraq and the fight against terrorism are critical to his chances.
-
- Following Mr Bush's uncertain performance in the first
of three presidential debates last week, Mr Kerry's position has risen
in the opinion polls, although he still trails on the key issue of national
security.
-
- With four weeks to polling day on Nov 2, Democrats are
for the first time beginning to think they could yet undermine Mr Bush's
stump message that you never ditch a commander-in-chief at a time of war.
-
- Mr Bremer, who for much of the past year was seen as
a contender for high office in a second Bush administration, tempered the
force of his remarks yesterday by saying that he still backed the decision
to intervene in Iraq.
-
- In a statement issued after his speech was leaked, he
said he believed winning the war in Iraq was an "integral part of
fighting this war on terror" and that he "strongly" supported
Mr Bush's re-election.
-
- But by saying that a shortage of troops hindered the
occupation and inhibited efforts to stop the wave of looting that erupted
after Saddam's downfall he was bolstering the argument of Mr Bush's most
persistent critics. They have long argued that the Pentagon planned poorly
by sending too few troops. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman,
would not comment on whether Mr Bremer had made attempts to move in more
forces.
-
- "We never get into reading out all the conversations
they had," he said, adding that Mr Bush relied on his military officers
and not Mr Bremer for advice on troop levels.
-
- --------
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- Mr Kerry's campaign will dispatch "thousands"
of lawyers to polling stations to combat any sign of Republican dirty tricks.
-
- Five mobile "Swat" teams of top lawyers, will
be ready to assist people if they run into suspicious obstacles or technical
difficulties. Voters, especially black people, were told Republicans could
be plotting to disenfranchise them.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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