Kerry Punches:
“Unfortunately, he escaped in the mountains of Tora Bora. We had him surrounded. But we didn’t use American forces, the best trained in the world, to go kill him. The president relied on Afghan warlords and he outsourced that job too. That’s wrong.”
“The president just talked about Iraq as a center of the war on terror. Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it.”
“This president thought it was more important to give the wealthiest people in America a tax cut rather than invest in homeland security. Those aren’t my values. I believe in protecting America first.”
“You know, the president’s father did not go into Iraq, into Baghdad, beyond Basra. And the reason he didn’t is, he said — he wrote in his book — because there was no viable exit strategy. And he said our troops would be occupiers in a bitterly hostile land. That’s exactly where we find ourselves today. There’s a sense of American occupation.”
“I did vote to give the authority, because I thought Saddam Hussein was a threat, and I did accept that intelligence. But I also laid out a very strict series of things we needed to do in order to proceed from a position of strength. Then the president, in fact, promised them…. he said, “We will plan carefully. We will proceed cautiously. We will not make war inevitable. We will go with our allies.” He didn’t do any of those things. They didn’t do the planning.”
“They avoided even the advice of their own general. General Shinsheki, the Army chief of staff, said you’re going to need several hundred thousand troops. Instead of listening to him, they retired him.”
“The terrorism czar, who has worked for every president since Ronald Reagan, said, “Invading Iraq in response to 9/11 would be like Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor.” ”
“I’ve had one position, one consistent position, that Saddam Hussein was a threat. There was a right way to disarm him and a wrong way. And the president chose the wrong way.”
“And it reminds me that it is vital for us not to confuse the war, ever, with the warriors. That happened before.”
“Secretary of State Colin Powell told this president the Pottery Barn rule: If you break it, you fix it. Now, if you break it, you made a mistake. It’s the wrong thing to do. But you own it. And then you’ve got to fix it and do something with it. Now that’s what we have to do. There’s no inconsistency. Soldiers know over there that this isn’t being done right yet.”
“When you guard the oil ministry, but you don’t guard the nuclear facilities, the message to a lot of people is maybe, “Wow, maybe they’re interested in our oil.”
“Jim, the president just said something extraordinarily revealing and frankly very important in this debate. In answer to your question about Iraq and sending people into Iraq, he just said, “The enemy attacked us.” Saddam Hussein didn’t attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us. And when we had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora (Afghanistan), 1,000 of his cohorts with him in those mountains. With the American military forces nearby and in the field, we didn’t use the best-trained troops in the world to go kill the world’s No. 1 criminal and terrorist.”
“I mean, we can remember when President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle. And in the middle of the discussion, to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, he said, “Here, let me show you the photos.” And DeGaulle waved them off and said, “No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me.” How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we’ve done, in that way?”
Bush’s Screwups:
“I don’t think we want to get to how he’s going to pay for all these promises”?! — A President who puts a price tag on America’s security on its own soil while defending taxcuts for the rich doesn’t deserve to be re-elected.
“Of course we’re after Saddam Hussein — I mean bin Laden.”
“I know how these people think. I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone frequently. They’re not going to follow somebody who says, “This is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time.” I know how these people think. I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone frequently.” — Why are you repeating yourself, George?
“I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it’s necessary work.”
“You know, it’s hard work to try to love her as best as I can, knowing full well that the decision I made caused her loved one to be in harm’s way.” — This was incomprehensible when he said it onscreen, and sounded as if he was saying he was having sex with the war widow. We all looked at each other and said, “what did he just say?”
“First of all, of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that.”
Bush said the phrase ‘hard work’ *eleven* *times*” …
Bush said “Wrong war, wrong time, wrong place.” Five times!
