From combined dispatches
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, yesterday aimed a new volley of criticism at President Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq.
Mr. Bush’s failure to “internationalize” the conflict has made America less safe and cost it credibility and momentum, the Democratic challenger said.
“The president may not want to admit mistakes, but his choices in Iraq have so far produced a tragedy of errors,” Mr. Kerry said in the weekly Democratic radio address. “Staying the course does not mean stubbornly holding to the wrong course.”
Mr. Kerry said the United States should not retreat from Iraq, and he offered a four-step plan for peace that includes more U.S. troops combined with a U.N. mission to help rebuild Iraq and set up a democratic government.
He also called for a NATO security force under an American commander to transform the military force in Iraq.
“Removing that ’Made In America’ label can send a message to Iraqi military and police that it’s time to do their jobs — not because America is telling them to but because the world stands ready to help them secure a stable Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said.
Mr. Bush has sought to put a more international face on the U.S.- and British-dominated coalition. On Friday, he welcomed a proposal from the U.N.’s Iraq envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, on transferring sovereignty and called that outline “a way forward to establishing an interim government that is broadly acceptable to the Iraqi people.”
Earlier last week, Mr. Bush said he would like to get a new U.N. resolution “that will help other nations to decide to participate” in Iraq.
Mr. Kerry voted for the 2002 congressional resolution that authorized Mr. Bush to use force in Iraq. Since the U.S. invasion a year ago, however, he has become increasingly critical of Mr. Bush’s war management.
Mr. Bush, in his weekly radio address yesterday, declared the Patriot Act a vital tool in the war on terrorism. He said Congress would place the nation at greater risk of attack if it fails to renew the wide-ranging law enforcement powers.
Key elements of the post-September 11 law are set to expire next year, and “some politicians in Washington act as if the threat to America will also expire on that schedule,” Mr. Bush said.
“To abandon the Patriot Act would deprive law enforcement and intelligence officers of needed tools in the war on terror and demonstrate willful blindness to a continuing threat,” the president said.
Several conservative Republicans have joined liberal Democrats in saying that portions of the law are too intrusive on Americans’ lives. They are threatening to allow the provisions to die at the end of next year.
Some want to impose more judicial oversight of how police and prosecutors conduct investigations.
“Our government’s first duty is to protect the American people,” Mr. Bush said, and the Patriot Act “fulfills that duty in a way that is fully consistent with constitutional protections.”
Asked Friday whether Mr. Bush was making a campaign issue of the Patriot Act, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president is “going to continue to talk about it,” and there are “some clear choices on this issue … in this election.”
Mr. Bush’s remarks strike a theme that he will return to this week, beginning tomorrow in Pennsylvania, a state that is key to his re-election hopes.
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