Kerry Assails Bush Record on Security and Terrorism
Ladies and gentlemen, America doesn’t need leaders who play politics with 9/11 or see the war on terror as just another campaign issue,” Mr. Kerry said a moment later. “Our nation’s safety is too important. And if I am president, we will work toward victory in the war on terror, knowing that those on the front lines of this battle are heroes, not political props.”
“I don’t fault George Bush for doing too much in the war on terror, as some do,” Mr. Kerry said. “I believe that he’s done too little and done some things that he didn’t have to. When the focus of the war on terror was appropriately in Afghanistan and on breaking Al Qaeda, President Bush shifted his focus to Iraq and to Saddam Hussein.
“He pushed away our allies at a time when we needed them the most. He hasn’t pursued a strategy to win the hearts and minds of people around the world, and win the war of ideas against the radical ideology of Osama bin Laden.”