The Washington Monthly

September 20, 2004

KERRY ON TERRORISM....John Kerry today at New York University:

....our most important task is to fight...and to win...the war on terrorism.

....In fighting the war on terrorism, my principles are straight forward. The terrorists are beyond reason. We must destroy them.

....Today, President Bush tells us that he would do everything all over again, the same way. How can he possibly be serious? Is he really saying that if we knew there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to Al Qaeda, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer is no — because a Commander-in-Chief’s first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe.

....I would have concentrated our power and resources on defeating global terrorism and capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. I would have tightened the noose and continued to pressure and isolate Saddam Hussein — who was weak and getting weaker — so that he would pose no threat to the region or America.

Yep. He needs to keep hammering away at this. Kerry wins or loses based on whether he can convince the American public that Bush has botched the war on terrorism and will continue botching it if he's reelected.

The rest of the speech is pretty good too. Read it all.

—Kevin Drum 1:02 PM Permalink | Trackbacks

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