Today’s “campaign issue” was a childish attack by Dick Cheney, twisting the use of the word “sensitive” by John Kerry last week into something it wasn’t. Read below the link and inoculate yourself; unless you watched CBS news or listened to Air America today, you definitely got a very misleading version of what happened from CNN, among others.
Kerry on August 5:
“The first part focuses on security. I will fight this war on terror with the lessons I learned in war. I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president of the United States. I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history. I lay out a strategy to strengthen our military, to build and lead strong alliances and reform our intelligence system. I set out a path to win the peace in Iraq and to get the terrorists wherever they may be before they get us.” (Kerry, 8/5/04)
Bush in 2001:
“We help fulfill that promise not by lecturing the world, but by leading it. Precisely because America is powerful, we must be sensitive about expressing our power and influence. Our goal is to patiently build the momentum of freedom, not create resentment for America itself. We pursue our goals, we will listen to others. We want strong friends to join us, not weak neighbors to dominate. In all our dealings with other nations, we will display the modesty of true confidence and strength.” (Bush Remarks at USS Regan Ceremony, 3/4/01)
Bush last week at the UNITY conference:
“Now, in terms of the balance between running down intelligence and bringing people to justice obviously is — we need to be very sensitive on that.” (Bush Delivers Remarks at the Unity, Journalists of Color Conference, 8/6/04)
Dick today:
“Senator Kerry has also said that if he were in charge he would fight a ‘more sensitive’ war on terror. America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive.” (Cheney in Dayton OH today)
Ooops.
Leave a Reply