Kerry Hits Bush On Iraq In Powerful Speech

In a speech at the New York University Senator John Kerry critisized President Bush as sharply as never before - especially on the war in Iraq. Excerpts:

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.

And:

Before the war, before he chose to go to war, bi-partisan Congressional hearings… major outside studies… and even some in the administration itself… predicted virtually every problem we now face in Iraq.
This President was in denial. He hitched his wagon to the ideologues who surround him, filtering out those who disagreed, including leaders of his own party and the uniformed military. The result is a long litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences.

Kerry launched his own charge of inconsistency: Bush, he said, had issued some 23 different rationales for the war. And continued to go into the heart of the matter:

In Iraq, this administration has consistently over-promised and under-performed. This policy has been plagued by a lack of planning, an absence of candor, arrogance and outright incompetence. And the President has held no one accountable, including himself. In fact, the only officials who lost their jobs over Iraq were the ones who told the truth.

Bam! And then Kerry goes into the officials who told the truth and got the boot.
And it's clear from the speech that not only has Bush done a terrible job - Kerry will do a better one. Why? Simple.

George Bush has no strategy for Iraq. I do.

Is that direct, or what?

The specifics of Kerry's plan:
- Hold an emergency summit of major allies and Iraq's neighbors to rebuild the coalition.
- Greatly expand the project to train Iraq's troops, and make sure they're trained better - he'd double classroom training time.
- Fire the officials responsible for screwing up Iraq's reconstruction and hire more Iraqi firms instead of Halliburton. Actually spend the reconstruction money.
- Pull together a U.N. protection force to make sure the elections go forward.

Good ideas. (If people tell you that Bush's plan is the same as Kerry's, ask them to list the Pentagon officials who've been fired for mismanaging the reconstruction. And as them which countries are invited to Bush's emergency summit.)
The key thing, though, is that if people recognize that Kerry has a plan and Bush doesn't, Kerry will win. Spread the word: if you still think Kerry isn't fighting back, you aren't paying attention (via the Al Franken Show). Plus: Read Kerry's entire speech.