Trail of 'Deception'

Kerry Accuses Bush of Making Up Reasons for Iraq War, Not Facing Truth
By Jim Tankersley, Rocky Mountain News
October 8, 2004

ARAPAHOE COUNTY — John Kerry stood before a snow-capped Rocky Mountain backdrop Thursday and accused President Bush of overblowing charges of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, changing his rationale for invading Iraq and of a "pattern of deception" that extends from Baghdad to America's classrooms.

The Democratic nominee ended his three-day Colorado stay saying Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "may well be the last two people on the planet who won't face the truth about Iraq."

Kerry delivered his broadside at the Bush administration during a press conference at the Inverness Hotel, where he was practicing for tonight's presidential debate in St. Louis.

He said Bush sold the Iraq war on evidence of Hussein's weapons programs, which is now "completely known to be wrong."

"The president," Kerry said, "shifted the focus from the real enemy, al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, to an enemy that they aggrandized and fictionalized."

The Bush campaign responded by again accusing Kerry of switching sides on the issue. The campaign released a series of Kerry quotes, dating back to 1997, that show the senator frequently worrying about Hussein's efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

The campaigns struggled to spin a CIA report on Iraq's weapons programs, released this week. Kerry trumpeted the conclusion of Charles Duelfer, the top American inspector in Iraq, that Hussein essentially dismantled his illicit weapons programs after the first Gulf War in 1991.

Bush and Cheney seized on aspects of the report they said justified the war, including that Hussein was abusing the U.N. oil-for-food program to try to undermine sanctions intended to keep him from developing weapons.

Kerry said that amounted to a refusal to accept reality and accused Bush of inventing new justifications for the war.

"My fellow Americans," Kerry said, "you don't make up or find reasons to go to war after the fact."

The senator also seized on recent comments by Paul Bremer, the Bush appointee who administered Iraq before handing power to an interim government this summer, that the president hadn't sent enough troops to Iraq.

Kerry said that's led to "chaos on the ground" and an emboldened insurgency with terrorists flooding into the country. He also chided Bush for not accepting responsibility for that outcome.

"For President Bush," Kerry said, "it's always somebody else's fault. . . . The truth is, the responsibility lies with the commander in chief."

Three of the four questions Kerry took after the news conference centered on Iraq. Asked if he'd commit more troops there if elected, Kerry said he didn't know.

"I don't know what I'm going to find on January 20th the way the president is going," he said. "If the president just does more of the same every day and it continues to deteriorate, I may be handed Lebanon, figuratively speaking."

That's a reference to 1983, when suicide attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon killed 63 people and the bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut six months later killed 241 American servicemen.

Dozens of Westerners were taken hostage during that period. President Reagan withdrew troops months after the Marine bombing.
Kerry also said there was no contradiction between his labeling Hussein a "threat" in the past and now saying Bush "fictionalized" the former Iraqi leader's capabilities.

"There are all kinds of threats in the world, ladies and gentlemen," Kerry said. "Al-Qaida is in 60 countries, are we invading all 60 countries? . . .

"The point is, there are all kinds of options available to a president to deal with threats."

Kerry also attacked Bush on domestic issues, saying the president has misled Americans by claiming his signature education act boosted reading scores nationwide. Kerry cited a study, released Thursday, that showed reading scores flat or declining in 11 of the 15 largest states.

Bush, he said, has "left millions of children behind."

The Kerry campaign picked Colorado for debate prep in large part, aides said, because of its beauty and recreation.

Hard work and damp weather kept Kerry cooped indoors Wednesday, and Thursday he appeared itchy to bask in clear skies and balmy October temperatures.

Asked after the press conference if he was ready for the debate, Kerry replied: "I'm ready for some exercise and enjoying a good day today."