[Peace-discuss] Kerry: Cut Bush Some Slack on Iraq (fwd)

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This must be what "democracy" means: at least once every four years, we
get to make a fundamental choice on which way the country's going -- or,
to put the matter more precisely, on who will be killed in our name...
--CGE]

	Kerry Says Bush Needs 'Some Space' on Iraq
	By Patricia Wilson

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters May 17) - Democratic White House hopeful John
Kerry (news - web sites), who has barely mentioned Iraq (news - web sites)
on the campaign trail this week, said on Monday he wanted to give
President Bush (news - web sites) "some space to get things done."

"I'm trying not to talk about it in politics," he told reporters aboard
his campaign plane en route from Topeka, Kansas, to Portland for a rally
with Howard Dean (news - web sites), a former rival for the Democratic
presidential nomination.

"I want to give the president some space to get things done and see what
happens," Kerry said. "I wish the president would lead. He needs to lead,
lives are at stake. He needs to be really bold."

Kerry called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
almost two weeks ago over what he called "miscalculations" on Iraq
compounded by a lack of command and control that created the culture for
abuse at a <U.S.-run> Iraqi prison. He also demanded that Bush, as
commander in chief, take full responsibility.

Last Friday, after privately viewing photographs of maltreatment at the
Abu Ghraib jail, he criticized the Bush administration for "indifference"
to the Geneva Conventions and other standards.

But since then, the senator from Massachusetts has turned his attention --
at least publicly -- away from the daily drumbeat of bad news from Iraq,
including the assassination on Monday of the head of the Iraqi Governing
Council.

"I think it's terrible," he said, but declined to speculate on how he
thought the assassination might affect the Bush administration's plan to
handover sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30.

At a rally in Portland, where Dean proved he could still draw huge and
enthusiastic crowds, Kerry spoke of Iraq in general terms, urging that its
reconstruction be internationalized and denouncing a war of choice rather
than necessity, all without mentioning the president by name.

WORKING WITH OTHER COUNTRIES

"We cannot possibly prevail in Iraq if we give up our values in the
process," he said. "Our nation is viewed by people all over the world as
much more than the name of a country ... we are an idea, a brilliant idea.

"But we deserve to have leadership that understands what every president
of the last century understood -- working with other countries, instead of
going unilaterally, is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength."

Dean, who vehemently opposed the Iraq war -- unlike Kerry who voted for
the congressional resolution authorizing the <U.S.-led> invasion of Iraq
-- was not so kind to Bush.

After praising Kerry's heroism as a decorated Vietnam War veteran, Dean
told about 4,000 boisterous supporters crammed into a downtown city
square, "I can't wait for a commander in chief who actually served abroad.
There's a lot of talk in this election about patriotism ... I haven't
heard from anybody on the other side who spent a day of their life
overseas."

Kerry, who laid out a middle class growth agenda before a Teamsters
conference in Las Vegas on Sunday, will host a round-table discussion in
Portland on Tuesday focusing on economic opportunity.

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