Deconstructing Kerry's Case Against President Bush: Part One

VDH Private Papers ^ | October 14, 2004 | Bruce Thornton

[quidnunc]

Now that we've heard in two debates the Kerry-Edwards case against President Bush, we should look critically at the Democrats' position. Kerry's most important charge is that Bush mishandled the war in Iraq: that it was (and presumably still is) "the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time," a formulation first used by Howard Dean, who has consistently been against the war in Iraq. This charge has various components: 1) that Bush misled Americans about Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs) and misrepresented the ties between Hussein and Al Qaeda, creating a false cause for war; 2) that he failed to plan adequately for the aftermath of the shooting war; 3) that he failed to bring the allies on board and indeed alienated them; and 4) that the war against Hussein is a distraction from the war against terror and the hunt for Bin Laden.

Whatever the reasons for Bush's mistakes — manipulation by a neocon cabal, the need to gratify corporate sponsors like Halliburton, or a personal vendetta against Hussein — to Kerry this error in judgment gives more than sufficient grounds for turning the President out of office. No doubt we will hear about other issues such as the economy, the tax cut, or Social Security, but Iraq will remain the centerpiece of the Kerry campaign, as Bush's major source of voter support is based on his handling of the war on terror.  Upon closer analysis, however, these positions of Kerry collapse into inconsistency, partisan distortion, and fundamental incoherence. In Part 1 we'll take a look at the first two charges: that the President misled the nation about Iraq's WMDs and ties to Al Qaeda, and that he failed to plan for the aftermath of combat operations.

-snip-

[nuffsenuff]

Everything I knew about Kerry's Iraq lies all wrapped up in a nice little package!

Sweet!

[weegee]

Kerry still hasn't identified why he would be BETTER. He is only running with the issue that Bush==BAD. If we take that as a faulty premise to begin with, he hasn't done anything to dispell the notion that he would be WORSE.

[NavVet]

ping

[satchmodog9]

beautiful

[Edgerunner]

While reading this, I was listening to Sean & Alan on Fox. They had some Dim Senator that Sean was interviewing. Sean called Kerry a liberal, and this guy went ballistic accusing the republicans of using scare tatics, like calling someone a liberal! ROFLMAO!
(it hurts when i laff this hard)...