Kerry Calls Bush Comments ‘Scare Tactics’

TIPTON, Iowa – Senator Kerry, fighting back after President Bush accused him of having dangerous policies, said yesterday that the Republican incumbent was resorting to a “blanket scare tactic” rather than focusing on his own important choices to keep the country safe.As Iraq continued to dominate the campaign, Mr. Kerry also rejected Mr. Bush’s contention that both men had seen the same intelligence before the war. And he drew attention to comments from the president’s former Iraq occupation chief who said the Bush administration had furnished too few troops after Saddam Hussein’s fall.Mr. Kerry, campaigning in a swing state that Al Gore won narrowly in 2000, was asked about a statement Mr. Bush had made in the state a day earlier: “The policies of my opponent are dangerous for world peace. If they were implemented, they would make this world not more peaceful but more dangerous.”“Well, that’s the sort of blanket scare tactic of the administration rather than trying to deal with the real choices before the country,” Mr. Kerry said.“What we are looking for here is presidential leadership that could make America safer,” he said. “I can make America safer in homeland security. I can make America safer with a plan for success in Iraq. And I can make America safer with the plan to bring allies back to the effort for the legitimate war on terror.”“The president has consistently avoided those choices. Time and again, when he had a chance to be able to protect us more effectively, he chose otherwise,” he said.Mr. Kerry also was asked about Mr. Bush’s statement in last week’s debate that the four-term Massachusetts senator had access to the same intelligence as the president in the weeks before the October 2002 vote on the congressional resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq.“For the president to suggest that really is to again be disingenuous about the power of the presidency, what’s available to the presidency in terms of the broad span of the intelligence network of the administration,” Mr. Kerry said.He also said that lawmakers were not told that Ahmed Chalabi was the source of much of the information, and if they had been there would have been more questions. Mr. Chalabi was a recent Pentagon favorite before a fallout with America.Mr. Kerry said the president “didn’t put enough troops in” Iraq after the first fighting brought down Saddam’s government, and “now Paul Bremer is saying what a terrible mistake it was. The president needs to take accountability for his own judgments.”Mr. Bremer, whom Bush appointed as head of the Iraq occupation, said yesterday that the United States did not have enough troops in the country to stabilize the situation after Saddam’s ouster and “paid a big price” for not stopping the widespread looting because that established an atmosphere of lawlessness.Mr. Kerry said voters should consider the fact that the president hasn’t admitted mistakes in Iraq when they vote on November 2. He said he had proven his own judgment by choosing to serve in Vietnam and then raising questions about American actions there when he returned home.A Bush-Cheney spokesman, Brian Jones, said in response to Mr. Kerry’s remarks on troops, “Ambassador Bremer differed with the commanders in the field. That is his right, but the president has always said that he will listen to his commanders on the ground and give them the support they need for victory.”Mr. Jones said Mr. Bremer had stuck to his views about the importance of removing Saddam and “this consistency stands in stark contrast to the shifting positions of John Kerry who voted for the war, voted against the troops for political gain.”

Kerry Calls Bush Comments ‘Scare Tactics’

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