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[leeinwv]

John Kerry's Pre-911 Mindset http://www.blogsforbush.com/
This morning I watched the beginning of Meet The Press, featuring Bush's campaign manager Ken Mehlman, and Kerry's senior strategist Bob Shrum.

One of the things that repeatedly bothers me about the Kerry campaign is their pre-9/11 mindset, and Bob Shrum made no effort to hide that mindset today.

Recycling lines we've heard John Kerry saying recently on the campaign trail, Bob Shrum suggested that the war in Iraq was a diversion from the "real war on terror," that Osama bin Laden was let go in Tora Bora, and that we're basically not going after the ones who attacked us.

Great rhetoric Mr. Shrum, I'm sure it gets your partisan crowds going wild, but all far from the truth.

For starters, Retired General Tommy Franks, who planned both the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, has explain that John Kerry's assertions are false. I do not know how many times Tommy Franks has to explain this, but clearly it has not penetrated the Kerry campaign yet. Franks has explained what happened in Tora Bora, from the fact that U.S. troops were there, and the job was not "left to Afghan warlords" and that there was no intelligence that said Osama bin Laden was definitely there, in fact various sources of intel suggested bin Laden was in a number of places.

Not that the Kerry campaign cares that it continues to lie to the American people.

Regardless, Shrum made the point that Saddam didn't attack us, and that the 9/11 Commission said there was no connection between Saddam and 9/11. Shrum made a juvenile remark to Ken Mehlman that perhaps only he, President Bush and Vice-President Cheney haven't read the 9/11 Commission's final report.

For one thing, the 9/11 Commission Report goes into much detail about various connections between Saddam's regime and Al Qaeda. I have a variety of pages of my copy of the 9/11 Commission Report flagged that go into these known connections, should the Kerry campaign be interested in actually reading them.

What is most disturbing about this attitude by the Kerry campaign is that it reflects a pre-9/11 mindset. Kerry and his campaign surrogates have made it clear that they think any terrorist who did not attack us on 9/11 is not worth going after. That's why you see them carefully choosing the language they speak of the issue of Iraq, Al Qaeda and 9/11.

When you hear a Kerry campaign person or Kerry himself talk about the connections, they will always say there was no connection "between Saddam and 9/11". They do not say "between Saddam and al Qaeda."

Why not? Because the connections between Saddam and al Qaeda are numerous and documented. But John Kerry doesn't care about that.

I'd like to ask John Kerry why he thinks connections to Al Qaeda do not merit action on our part?
I'd like to ask John Kerry why he thinks the only terrorists in the world who want to kill us are Al Qaeda.

George W. Bush on September 11, 2001 said, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." On September 20, 2001, Bush told our country "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

John Kerry clearly thinks the war on terror begins and ends solely with Al Qaeda, if not just Osama bin Laden himself. He does not see the big picture. The capture or killing of Osama bin Laden will not end terrorism throughout the world. The war on terror is a global effort, fought on many fronts in many nations. John Kerry sees the war on terror as being about just one man, or just one group, in just one country.

If John Kerry wants to fight a limited war on terror focusing on just one person, then good for him, but he can't think we're going to let him be our Commander-in-Chief with that attitude.

John Kerry pre-9/11 mindset will be the worst possible setback to the war on terror, yet his campaign regularly chooses to remind the country of their dangerous attitude. On November 2nd, they'll Americans reject that attitude, and vote for George W. Bush, who wants to eliminate all terrorism, not just a small part of it.

Of course, George W. Bush actually sees terrorism as a real threat, not just a "nuisance" like John Kerry does.

Matt Margolis blogged for Bush in category Kerry Watch at 11:59 AM

[srmorton]

I don't for one minute believe that John Kerry and his cronies
don't know the truth. They just think that the American people
are stupid enough to believe their lies. I know that there are
some people who are biased and/or uninformed enough to fall
for their false arguments. Thanks to Fox News, Laura, Rush,
Sean, and the SBVT, more and more people every day are
being confronted with the truth and will be immune to the empty
rhetoric that is being offered by Kerry and his ilk.
_________________
Susan R. Morton