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Kerry Seeks more Troops for Afghanistan
 Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday urged the deployment of more U.S. troops to combat the growing Taliban threat in Afghanistan ...
| 'growing Taliban threat'? Is that the dreaded fall Taliban offensive? |
... while accusing the administration of trying to salvage its congressional majorities by playing on public fears of future terrorist attacks rather than fixing what he said is a disastrous policy in Iraq.
| Because future terrorist attacks don't matter, until they happen, then they do ... |
As the nation prepares to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Kerry offered a pointed rejoinder to President Bush's recent rhetorical offensive on terrorism. He said Bush's policies have turned Iraq into a terrorist breeding ground, ...
| ... unlike what it was before, when Sammy was giving shelter and aid to terrorists ... |
... unleashed dangerous forces elsewhere in the Middle East ...
| ... that's callled 'democracy' and 'personal liberty' ... |
... and diverted resources from the battle against terrorism at home and in Afghanistan.
| In Afghanistan we have almost all of what we need, and we have NATO partners who are supposed to pony up the rest. And John's complaint about resources at home goes back to the 'perfect defense' strategy that would have us inspect every shipping container and leaving overseas terrorists alone. |
"We have a Katrina foreign policy, a succession of blunders and failures that have betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it," Kerry said in a speech at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall.
| Nice sound-bite for the six o'clock news but empty of content. |
A copy of the prepared text was distributed by Kerry's office.
The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee also accused Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who recently spoke of "moral confusion" in the debate about how best to fight the radical Islamic terrorist threat, of smearing those who dissent from the administration's policies by suggesting they are similar to Nazi appeasers in the 1930s.
| The '1938 argument' is striking home. |
"It is immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die in a conflict without a strategy that can work," he said. "It is immoral to lie about progress in that war to get through a news cycle or an election. It is immoral to treat 9/11 as a political pawn."
| So why don't you Dhimmicrats stop using it as one? |
Speaking a day after a suicide bomber killed 16 people, including two U.S. soldiers, in Afghanistan, Kerry accused the administration of pursuing "a policy of cut-and-run" in that country and said the Pentagon should deploy at least 5,000 more troops to help suppress the Taliban insurgency. He said allied forces there need more helicopters, drones, heavy equipment and reconstruction funds to help prop up the government in Kabul.
| We removed forces when NATO agreed to step up. NATO commanders have said they'd like more forces, but it's hardly 'cut and run' for us to let NATO do what they agreed to do. Note that the Canadians just this week decided to send 20 Leopard tanks to Afghanistan to help bolster their forces. That's exactly what should happen. John wants our 'traditional allies' to be a part of the WoT. Afghanistan's as good a place to start, and they're doing it. |
Kerry restated his call for the withdrawal of most U.S. forces from Iraq by next July, a recommendation that most of his fellow Democratic senators have already rejected.
| He keeps moving the date back. Pretty soon he'll be in 'agreement' with GWB, at which point he'll take all the credit. |
He also urged new policies to free the United States from its dependence on Middle East oil, which he described as the "great treasury of jihadist terrorism."
| So you'll support drilling in ANWR and off the coast of California, right? Right John? |
"There is simply no way to overstate how Iraq has subverted our efforts to free the world from global terror," Kerry said, according to the prepared text. "It has overstretched our military. It has served as an essential recruitment tool for terrorists. It has divided and pushed away our pretty much worthless traditional allies. It has diverted critical billions of dollars from the real front lines against terrorism and from homeland security."
Kerry, in a rhetorical twist that invoked one of the worst moments of his 2004 campaign, also took note of Bush's speech this week about the treatment of terrorist suspects who have been held at secret CIA prisons abroad. "Let me say it plainly," he said. "No American president should be for torture before he's against it."
A Republican National Committee spokeswoman, Tara Wall, called Kerry's criticism ill-timed on the eve of the commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks and charged that Kerry's blueprint would embolden terrorists and diminish domestic efforts to prevent future attacks.
Posted by: Bobby 2006-09-10 |
