Kerry Hurls Iraq Report at Bush. McClellan: "pessimists and naysayers"

[bigtree]

Kerry Hurls Essence of Report on Iraq at Bush

By Dana Priest and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 17, 2004; Page A20

Citing a new classified intelligence report predicting serious troubles ahead for Iraq, John F. Kerry yesterday accused President Bush of living in a "fantasy world of spin" and refusing to speak honestly about mounting casualties, indiscriminate killings and chaos in Iraq. "Stability and security seem further and further away," Kerry said.

The White House, which had planned a vigorous election-season defense of its Iraq strategy next week, was forced into the debate yesterday. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the intelligence assessment "states the obvious," and he dismissed skeptics of the Iraq policy as "pessimists and naysayers." Bush, at a campaign stop, repeated his generally upbeat assessment of Iraq: "Freedom is on the march."

The 60-page document produced by the National Intelligence Council set out three possible scenarios for the next year and a half in Iraq, the worst of which portrayed the country as descending into civil war. The assessment, which analyzed political, economic and security trends, blamed the mounting problems on Iraq's having no institutions and traditions upon which to build representative government and on resilient opponents, including Shiite militias, Sunni insurgents, foreign terrorists and common criminals.

Revelation of the report's existence came on a day when Kerry used some of the toughest language of the campaign to paint a markedly different portrait of Iraq than the one Bush offers audiences.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27270-2004Sep16.html?nav=rss_politics/elections/2004

[Kahuna]

1. You know. The bush denial like this, is really going to work to

our advantage. As a matter of fact. We should use these idiot quotes in ads, to illstrate how much in denial these a-holes are. :puke:

[are_we_united_yet]

2. How much you wanna bet

some freeper idiot will either say or put the "Freedom is on the march" slogan on their bumper?

[buycitgo]

3. it's ABOUT TIME, John!!!!!!!

you fricking GO, my man!

keep it UP

wring that little weasel's.......never mind

not saying which weasel, Agent Mike

[girl gone mad]

4. People can still turn on the news every night and see..

things aren't going well.

They've been lying about Iraq from the beginning. Remember just a few months ago when it was the media's fault for not reporting all of the good news? They've run out of defenses and now they are in full-on denial mode.

Go get 'em, Kerry.

[David Dunham]

5. Moveonpac.org's new ad "Quagmire" is the best ad of 2004

See it on their website.

[A_Possum]

6. YAY! WaPo admits Bush is on the defensive!

Pessimists and naysayers. Yeah, that'll get 'em a long way. Uh huh.