Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry accused President Bush of not being the leader he says he is and blamed his lack of leadership for the “two wars” the senator says America is embroiled in.
“I will lead, and I believe others will follow,” Mr. Kerry told a crowd of Democrats gathered yesterday in a hotel conference room in Waterloo, Iowa.
“The president says he’s a leader. Well, Mr. President, look behind you. There’s hardly anyone there. It’s not leadership if we haven’t built the strongest alliance possible and if America is going almost alone,” he said.
But Mr. Bush was in Iowa himself to return fire yesterday, and he accused the Massachusetts Democrat of “dangerous thinking” about the war on terror and said Mr. Kerry’s words “insult the allies” we have and “placate the countries that disagree with us.”
Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd in Mason City, Mr. Bush continued his theme of painting Mr. Kerry as a man whose worldview was not affected by the September 11 attacks.
“This is the first election since September 11, 2001, and the security of our nation is at risk in ways different than any we have faced,” Mr. Bush said. “We are in a global war against a well-trained and highly motivated enemy — an enemy that hates America for the very freedoms and values we cherish most.
“The next commander in chief must lead us to victory in this war, and you cannot win a war when you don’t believe you are fighting one,” he said.
Mr. Bush cited an Oct. 10 New York Times Magazine story in which Mr. Kerry was asked how September 11 changed him, and he replied, “It didn’t change me much at all.”
“And this unchanged worldview becomes obvious when he calls the war against terror primarily an intelligence and law-enforcement operation, rather than what I believe: a war which requires the full use of American power to keep us secure,” Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Kerry stated clearly the difference in each man’s worldview yesterday by continuing his theme of separating September 11 and Iraq by vowing to win the “two wars” and calling the overthrow of Saddam Hussein a “profound diversion” from war on terrorism.
“America must fight and win two wars,” Mr. Kerry said. “The war in Iraq and the war on terror.”
The Democrat went on to say, “President Bush likes to confuse the two” even though, he insisted, they are completely unrelated.
“In fact, Iraq was a profound diversion from that war and the battle against the enemy,” Mr. Kerry said.
From early on, Mr. Bush has said the war in Iraq is part of the war on terrorism, because, he says, the only way to combat terrorism is to abolish the rogue nations that encourage or permit terrorism to spawn.
Still, Mr. Kerry, in the past, has conflated the two, such as when Iraq saw its 1,000th American death.
“More than 1,000 of America’s sons and daughters have now given their lives on behalf of their country, on behalf of freedom in the war on terror,” he told reporters on an airport tarmac in Cincinnati in September.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the comments prove that “Senator Kerry has a strategy that is based on protest and retreat, a strategy that will lead to defeat in Iraq.”
“You know, there is a very clear choice when it comes to how to lead to win the war on terrorism,” Mr. McClellan said.
“The president has a comprehensive strategy to prevail in the war on terrorism. Senator Kerry has a pre-9/11 mind-set that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the war on terrorism. It’s an approach based on responding to attacks. The president has a comprehensive strategy to prevent attacks from happening.”
Mr. Bush’s visit to Mason City was the first by a sitting president, an indication of how important the state is in the election. Democrat Al Gore won the state in 2000 by just 4,144 votes, with more than half the margin of victory for the Democrat coming in the county in which Mason City sits.
No Republican has won the state since President Reagan in 1984. The latest polls for Iowa’s seven Electoral College votes shows the race essentially tied.
The president tailored his message to rural voters by mentioning his support for ethanol subsidies and his view that the Second Amendment “protects every American’s individual right to bear arms.”
It was clear, however, that Mr. Bush thinks that contrasting his aggressive waging of the war on terror with Mr. Kerry’s pledges to put more weight on the world opinion before taking action will carry the day in rural America.
“Senator Kerry’s top foreign-policy adviser [Richard Holbrooke] has questioned whether this is even a war at all,” Mr. Bush said. “Here’s what he said, and I quote, ’We’re not in a war on terror in the literal sense. It is like saying “the war on poverty.” It is just a metaphor.’ End quote.
“Confusing food programs with terrorist killings reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the war we face, and that is very dangerous thinking,” Mr. Bush said.
“Senator Kerry’s view of alliance-building is to call them the coerced and the bribed, is to insult the friends who stands with us and try to placate countries who disagree with us,” he said. “No, we’ll work hard with all our friends and allies, but I will never give a country a veto power over our national security.”
Mr. Bush has always thought that Iraq is merely the latest front in a generational global war on terror, and he cited the presence of wanted terrorists in Iraq to make his case.
He noted yesterday that Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of the most destructive and deadly terrorist cell in Iraq who has personally beheaded American civilians, was given sanctuary in Iraq after U.S. forces injured him during the liberation of Afghanistan from the terrorist-supporting Taliban.
But in his speech yesterday, Mr. Kerry said that the presence of Zarqawi in Iraq does not prove that al Qaeda is or ever was linked to Iraq or Saddam.
“That was wrong,” he said. Zarqawi, he said, was in Iraq before the war but “operating out of a no man’s land in northeastern Iraq next to territory controlled by America’s Kurdish allies.”
Mr. Bush noted that there have been recent developments.
“Just the other day, Zarqawi publicly announced his sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden,” Mr. Bush said. “If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting American forces in Iraq, does Senator Kerry think he would be leading a productive and peaceful life?
“Of course not. And that’s why Iraq is no diversion, but a central commitment in the war on terror, a place where our military is confronting and defeating terrorists overseas so we do not have to face them here at home,” he said.
• James G. Lakely reported from Mason City, Iowa; Charles Hurt from Waterloo, Iowa.
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