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Bush jumps on Kerry war backtrack

Aug 11, 2004 8:06 AM

US president Bush has claimed political vindication after Democratic rival John Kerry said he would have authorised military action in Iraq even knowing what he knows today.

"Almost three years after he voted for the war in Iraq, and almost 240 days after switching position and declaring himself the anti-war candidate, my opponent has found a new nuance," Bush told a campaign rally here.

"He now agrees it was the right decision to go into Iraq," said Bush, whose handling of the military operation has been a major issue in his quest for re-election in November.

Kerry voted to authorise force in Iraq but later turned critical of the war, lambasting Bush for the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and establish a link between Baghdad and al-Qaeda terrorists.

Under pressure to say whether he would vote the same way today, Kerry told reporters on Tuesday: "Yes, I would have voted for the authority, I believe it's the right authority for a president to have."

But speaking to reporters while campaigning at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Massachusetts senator said that as president he would have used the authority "very differently from the way President Bush has."

"My question to President Bush is, why did he rush to war without a plan to win the peace? Why did he rush to war on faulty intelligence and not do the hard work necessary to give America the truth?

"Why did he mislead America about how he would go to war, why has he not brought other countries to the table in order to support American troops in the way that we deserve it and relieve a pressure from the American people?"