CINCINNATI — Sen. John F. Kerry escalated his attacks Wednesday on President Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, saying it cost $200 billion that America needs for schools, healthcare and other domestic needs.
Speaking at the Cincinnati museum where Bush laid out his rationale for the war nearly two years ago, Kerry said the president's "wrong choices" on Iraq had "left America without the resources we need so desperately here at home."
With war costs mounting, the federal deficit has soared to new heights while Bush has shortchanged job training, veterans' healthcare and aid to local police, Kerry told about 750 supporters.
"When I'm president, America will once again stand up to our enemies without destroying or denying our best hopes here at home," he said.
In casting the war as a costly misadventure that has harmed Americans in their day-to-day lives, Kerry sought to reframe the Iraq debate in a way that shifted attention to domestic matters. Polls generally have found voters give Kerry the edge over Bush in dealing with jobs and healthcare, but the president is given higher marks on waging the war against terrorism and other national security issues.
Kerry's speech Wednesday also seemed aimed at regaining the offensive on Iraq after facing scathing attacks from Bush and his allies over what they portrayed as the Democrat's shifting positions on the war. The charge of inconsistency on Iraq is at the core of Bush's broader argument that Kerry lacks strong principles, waffles on key issues and cannot be trusted to lead the country.
Campaigning in Rochester, Minn., after his speech in Cincinnati, Kerry said he had been "absolutely consistent" on Iraq. "I simply have not changed my position one bit," he told a Minneapolis television station.
Kerry voted in October 2002 to authorize the use of military force in Iraq. But since then, he has criticized Bush's use of that authority, saying the president gave inspectors too little time to search for banned weapons in Iraq, failed to build a broad coalition of allies to fight Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and rushed to war with no plan to manage the aftermath.
Nonetheless, Kerry said last month that he still would have voted to authorize the war even if he had known then about the apparent lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
