US President George W. Bush entered the last two weeks of the presidential campaign on Monday with his most explicit charge that the security of the US would be in peril if Senator John Kerry were elected, declaring that Kerry had "a strategy of retreat" for Iraq and would act against terrorists "only after America is hit."
Delivering a revamped speech in Marlton, New Jersey before flying here for a fund-raising event, Bush said that Kerry's policy "comes down to this: Before we act to defend ourselves, he thinks we need permission from foreign capitals."
PHOTO: AP
Bush's speech was more than an incremental escalation of his attacks on Kerry, the Democratic nominee.
It was a change in tone to a far more incendiary characterization of the senator as a man who would undercut US defenses, surrender its military decisions to other nations and treat terrorism as a disease in need of treatment rather than an enemy force in need of evisceration.
Using phrases that appeared to reflect the language of one of his leading advisers, Karen Hughes, Bush accused Kerry of taking "the easy path of protest and defeatism," a phrase that evoked Kerry's statements about Vietnam 34 years ago. His use of terms like "a policy of weakness," "giving up the fight" and "a strategy of retreat" appeared intended to paint Kerry as an appeaser at best and a coward at worst.
Kerry's campaign, clearly outraged, described the statements as brazen distortions, driven by desperation as the casualties in Iraq mounted.
They promised an aggressive response in a new television advertisement that was to be broadcast yesterday and a speech in Iowa today.
Mike McCurry, Kerry's chief spokesman, called Bush's remarks a "thoroughly dishonest speech" that deliberately twisted Kerry's words.
For his part, Kerry seized on a new report in The Washington Post that the top US commander on the ground in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, had complained to the Pentagon last winter that he lacked supplies vital to successful combat operations.
"Despite the president's arrogant boasting that he's done everything right in Iraq and that he's made no mistakes, the truth is beginning to come out and it's beginning to catch up with him," Kerry told a crowd of several hundred at Century Village, a retirement community in West Palm Beach, Florida, ending the day in Orlando.
With the polls virtually tied, Bush's scathing attack on Kerry's national security record appeared to signal the Bush campaign's strategy for the 15 days remaining: To capitalize on the president's greatest strength -- the perception that he is strong against terrorism -- and the continuing doubts about whether Kerry is tough enough.
That, in turn, appears to be forcing the Kerry campaign to respond in kind. Several times in his speech, Bush used the phrase "weak" or "weakness" to describe Kerry, saying the senator "has a record of trying to weaken American intelligence" and insisting "my opponent wants to weaken the Patriot Act," the anti-terrorism law passed in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
But Bush argued that Kerry was weakest of all on Iraq.
"He has talked about artificial timetables to pull our troops out of Iraq," Bush said. "He has sent the signal that America's overriding goal in Iraq would be to leave, even if the job is not done."
Bush has not defined when he will view the job there as done, but in his speech on Monday he said, "We'll make sure Iraqi forces can defend their country, and then American troops will return home."
Before leaving Washington for the speech, Bush signed a bill that gives the Department of Homeland Security US$30 billion to shore up US borders and protect potential terrorist targets. Some of Bush's characterizations of Kerry's statements on Monday appeared fair, if open to partisan rebuttal.
Others ignored elements of Kerry's record and stated positions in a way that paints an incomplete or distorted portrait of his approach.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of