Kerry Says War Siphoning Billions From Home Front

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-kerry9sep09.story

Kerry Says War Siphoning Billions From Home Front
By Michael Finnegan
Times Staff Writer

September 9, 2004

CINCINNATI — Sen. John F. Kerry escalated his attacks Wednesday on President Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, saying it cost $200 billion that America needs for schools, healthcare and other domestic needs.

Speaking at the Cincinnati museum where Bush laid out his rationale for the war nearly two years ago, Kerry said the president's "wrong choices" on Iraq had "left America without the resources we need so desperately here at home."

With war costs mounting, the federal deficit has soared to new heights while Bush has shortchanged job training, veterans' healthcare and aid to local police, Kerry told about 750 supporters.

"When I'm president, America will once again stand up to our enemies without destroying or denying our best hopes here at home," he said.

In casting the war as a costly misadventure that has harmed Americans in their day-to-day lives, Kerry sought to reframe the Iraq debate in a way that shifted attention to domestic matters. Polls generally have found voters give Kerry the edge over Bush in dealing with jobs and healthcare, but the president is given higher marks on waging the war against terrorism and other national security issues.<snip>

[papau]

1. Other Kerry comments on Iraq issue are:

The new ad:

"George Bush — $200 billion for Iraq," a narrator says in the spot. "In America, lost jobs and rising healthcare costs. George Bush's wrong choices have weakened us here at home."

Plus:

Oct. 9, 2002 (during Senate debate on the resolution authorizing the war):

"I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force — if necessary — to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security…. In giving the president this authority, I expect him to fulfill the commitments he has made to the American people in recent days — to work with the United Nations Security Council to adopt a new resolution setting out 'tough, immediate' inspection requirements and to 'act with our allies at our side' if we have to disarm Saddam Hussein by force."


May 3, 2003 (during a debate among Democratic presidential candidates in South Carolina):

"I said at the time I would have preferred if we had given diplomacy a greater opportunity, but I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the president made the decision, I supported him." he does not say he supported the war that Bush started in March before the weapons inspectors had completed their work

Jan. 6, 2004 (on MSNBC's "Hardball"):

Q: "Do you think you belong in that category of candidates who more or less are unhappy with this war? … Are you one of the antiwar candidates?"

Kerry: "I am. Yes. In the sense that I don't believe the president took us to war as he should have, yes. Absolutely. Do I think this president violated his promises to America? Yes, I do."

March 16, 2004 (at a town hall meeting in West Virginia):

"I actually did vote for the $87-billion before I voted against it." meaning voted for the version that raised the tax on the rich to pay for it.

Aug. 9, 2004 (during a stop at the Grand Canyon, when asked whether he still would have supported the resolution authorizing the war had he known that Hussein's regime did not possess weapons of mass destruction):

"Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have."

Sept. 6, 2004 (speech in West Virginia):

"This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to healthcare, could have gone to prescription drugs, could have gone to our Social Security. It's the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Sept. 8, 2004 (speech in Cincinnati):

"When it comes to Iraq, it's not that I would have done one thing differently from the president; I would have done almost everything differently from the president."

[meti57b]

2. that is the most important point and should be emphasized ....

The war on Iraq has siphoned the money that would have otherwise been used to provide homeland security, ... security in the United States: first responders ... more for police, fire dept, civil defense, inspection of incoming containers at US ports, etc. Also, securing those loose nukes left over from the FSU.

[Carolinian]

3. And away from HOME SECURITY!!!