Kerry and Bush are trading speeches now as John Kerry amps up his criticism of Bush's Iraq policy. This is a good move for him. Too bad he didn't start doing this 4 or 5 months ago.
In a speech at NYU, Kerry strongly criticized George's Iraq adventure.
In June, the President declared, "The Iraqi people have their country back." Just last week, he told us: "This country is headed toward democracy... Freedom is on the march."
But the administration's own official intelligence estimate, given to the President last July, tells a very different story.
According to press reports, the intelligence estimate totally contradicts what the President is saying to the American people.
So do the facts on the ground.
Security is deteriorating, for us and for the Iraqis.
42 Americans died in Iraq in June -- the month before the handover. But 54 died in July...66 in August... and already 54 halfway through September.
And more than 1,100 Americans were wounded in August - more than in any other month since the invasion.
We are fighting a growing insurgency in an ever widening war-zone. In March, insurgents attacked our forces 700 times. In August, they attacked 2,700 times - a 400% increase.
Falluja...Ramadi... Samarra ... even parts of Baghdad - are now "no go zones"... breeding grounds for terrorists who are free to plot and launch attacks against our soldiers. The radical Shi'a cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, who's accused of complicity in the murder of Americans, holds more sway in the suburbs of Baghdad.
Violence against Iraqis... from bombings to kidnappings to intimidation ... is on the rise.
Basic living conditions are also deteriorating.
Residents of Baghdad are suffering electricity blackouts lasting up to 14 hours a day.
Raw sewage fills the streets, rising above the hubcaps of our Humvees. Children wade through garbage on their way to school.
Unemployment is over 50 percent. Insurgents are able to find plenty of people willing to take $150 for tossing grenades at passing U.S. convoys.
Yes, there has been some progress, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our soldiers and civilians in Iraq. Schools, shops and hospitals have been opened. In parts of Iraq, normalcy actually prevails.
But most Iraqis have lost faith in our ability to deliver meaningful improvements to their lives. So they're sitting on the fence... instead of siding with us against the insurgents.
That is the truth. The truth that the Commander in Chief owes to our troops and the American people.
It's worth reading the whole speech. This the kind of thing we need from the Democrats. The world is going to shit and it's largely George W. Bush's fault.
I'll quote some more, since nobody ever clicks links these days.
The first and most fundamental mistake was the President's failure to tell the truth to the American people.
He failed to tell the truth about the rationale for going to war. And he failed to tell the truth about the burden this war would impose on our soldiers and our citizens.
By one count, the President offered 23 different rationales for this war. If his purpose was to confuse and mislead the American people, he succeeded.
His two main rationales - weapons of mass destruction and the Al Qaeda/September 11 connection - have been proved false... by the President's own weapons inspectors... and by the 9/11 Commission. Just last week, Secretary of State Powell acknowledged the facts. Only Vice President Cheney still insists that the earth is flat.
As Kos points out, even prominent members of Bush's own party are harshly criticizing Bush's Iraq policy.
In appearances on news talk shows, Republican senators also urged Bush to be more open with the American public after the disclosure of a classified CIA report that gave a gloomy outlook for Iraq and raised the possibility of civil war.
"The fact is, we're in deep trouble in Iraq ... and I think we're going to have to look at some recalibration of policy," Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
"We made serious mistakes," said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who has campaigned at Bush's side this year after patching up a bitter rivalry.
Bush's response to Kerry's speech was defensive, pathetic, and un-American.
"Anytime we put our troops into harm's way, they need to have the full support of the United States government -- the full support," Mr. Bush said.
See that? Kerry offers studied and factual criticism of Bush's policy, sprinkled with what he would do differently. Bush's argument is that there should be no argument. Questioning him is equivalent to putting American troops in harm's way. Kerry is "signaling" the enemy.
Bush is a truly, truly evil man. He must be stopped.
