Friday, September 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

LAS VEGAS VISIT: Kerry rips handling of war

Democrat says Bush glossing over deteriorating situation in Iraq

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry meets with supporters after his speech Thursday to the National Guard Association of the United States at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Photo by John Gurzinski. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry addresses members of the National Guard Association of the United States at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Photo by John Gurzinski. John Kerry backers rally Thursday outside the Las Vegas Convention Center as the Democratic nominee speaks to the National Guard Association of the United States Photo by John Locher. With the Strip's New York-New York skyline in the background, Democratic nominee John Kerry descends the steps of his plane shortly after it landed Thursday in Las Vegas. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry issued his harshest criticism yet of the handling of the war in Iraq in a speech Thursday to National Guard conventioneers in Las Vegas, saying President Bush misled the nation, rushed to war and ignored increasingly chaotic signs from that country.

Kerry offered a much different view of the war and homeland security than Bush did Tuesday in his speech to the same group, the National Guard Association of the United States.

"Two days ago, the president stood right where I'm standing and did not even acknowledge that more than 1,000 men and women have lost their lives in Iraq," Kerry said inside the Las Vegas Convention Center. "He did not tell you that with each passing day, we're seeing more chaos, more violence and indiscriminate killings."

Kerry mentioned a Thursday New York Times article on new U.S. government intelligence appraisals offering a bleak picture of the situation in Iraq.

"I believe he failed the fundamental test of leadership," Kerry said. "He failed to tell you the truth. You deserve better. The commander in chief must level with the troops and the nation. I intend to do that, on the good days and the bad days."

Kerry's own staff said afterward the speech was the candidate's most pointed criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the war.

Kerry was greeted politely by the crowd, receiving standing ovations when he was introduced and two other times when he outlined benefits he would pursue for the Guard. But the audience was less energetic than it was for Bush on Tuesday, offering no applause during roughly half of Kerry's 30-minute speech, the half of which he criticized Bush.

Kerry said the mission in Iraq is in "serious trouble," and "with each passing month, stability and security seem further and farther away."

"I believe you deserve a president who isn't going to gild that truth or gild our national security with politics, who is not going to ignore his own intelligence," Kerry said. "I believe you deserve a president who will give the American people the truth, not a fantasy world of spin, but a world where we challenge our brave men and women to be able to meet the test of our times."

Though the response was not nearly as enthusiastic as that given to Bush, many Guard members and civilians crowded Kerry after the speech and he shook hands for nearly 30 minutes.

In an interview afterward, Kerry said a lot of guardsmen who greeted him said they were thankful he came to speak.

"A lot of people came up to me afterwards and said, 'I'm voting for you; boy you told the truth,' " Kerry said.

Thursday marked Kerry's fourth visit to Las Vegas this year and the second time both he and Bush have been in Southern Nevada in the same week. Kerry was in Las Vegas about four hours before heading to New Mexico for a rally.

Outside the convention center, about 70 veterans, union members and other Kerry supporters gathered, waving placards and chanting slogans like "Bush is a zero. Kerry is a hero."

George Saxon, 74, a Korean War veteran who served 23 years in the military, said he opposes Bush because of troop deaths in an unnecessary war.

"Kerry knows what goes on in the military because he has been there," Saxon said. "Bush has only heard about it. Bush doesn't know anything about the military."

Kerry met with local veterans after touching down in Las Vegas. John Hunt, the 2002 Democratic nominee for attorney general, stood with a photo of his son, Billy, 22, a soldier in the 82nd Airborne who learned Wednesday he was being deployed to Afghanistan after returning in April from service in Iraq.

Hunt explained the situation to Kerry and asked whether he would talk to the young man. He said his son was skeptical Kerry would be on the phone.

"I called my son, and he said `No way,' and then Kerry ... took the phone and told my son that he was going to do everything he could to protect all the troops," Hunt said.

Republicans did not let Kerry's visit go unnoticed. In a news conference at a local club for Marines, Nevada Veterans for Bush countered Kerry's assertions.

"He has never supported the troops," said Paul Adams, the group's chairman, referring to Kerry's votes against military funding during his 20-year Senate career.

Adams was joined by Theresa Bunker, whose son, Josh, 21, is in the National Guard, and by Guard member Brandon Upton, 19.

"President Bush is my commander in chief, and I'm proud of it," said Upton, a member of the 777th Transportation Company.

All three speakers chided Kerry for what they described as his changing stance on the war in Iraq, a theme stressed by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Both hammer Kerry for voting against the $87 billion supplemental funding bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after supporting to go to war in Iraq.

In an interview after his speech, Kerry said he voted against the funding because he disagreed with the way the Bush administration pursued the war he supported.

"My vote was the right vote, and it's been proven to be the right vote because George Bush has messed up Iraq and has messed up the money," Kerry said.

The Massachusetts senator said only $300 million of the $18.4 billion in that bill earmarked for construction has been spent.

"It's sitting in a slush fund over there," Kerry said. "We could have been using the money over here. The president clearly didn't put our country on the right track, and that's why I voted the way I did. I said at the time, 'You've got to get the policy right.' He hasn't."

Kerry said he has been discussing for two years the "right way" and "wrong way" to conduct the war. His approach involved getting broader international support and a coalition of support within the Middle East to share the costs of the war.

"And my right way is being proven more and more every day to have been the right way and to be the way he should have gone," Kerry said. "But the president has stubbornly resisted our advice. And he's gone unilaterally; America's carrying 90 percent of the cost of the war in Iraq, 90 percent of the casualties, and it's going worse."

In his speech to the Guard, Kerry said the Guard and Reserve, which compose roughly 40 percent of the troops in Iraq, are overextended. He repeated his stance that their deployment abroad constitutes "a backdoor draft."

Kerry said he would create new Army divisions focused on bioterrorism and return National Guard members to America to focus on homeland security.

His speech offered no details of his proposals to expand Guard health care and retirement benefits, nor did he offer specifics about his plan to shift military priorities.

In the interview, Kerry said he would not impose a draft. He predicted Americans would sign up for military service because they could have confidence in his leadership, based on lessons he learned in his own military service during the Vietnam War.

Bush, he said, did not go to war as a last resort.

"The fact is, he took his eye off the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, shifted it to Iraq, and we're paying a high price for his judgment."

In several interviews with local television stations Thursday, Kerry repeated his opposition to Yucca Mountain, discussed how he would stop the project and criticized Bush for making a "special interest" decision to bury the nation's nuclear waste at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Review-Journal writers Frank Geary and Richard Lake contributed to this report.