NEW YORK – Staking out new ground on Iraq, Sen. John Kerry suggested Monday that he would not have overthrown Saddam Hussein had he known what he knows now, and accused President Bush of “stubborn incompetence,” dishonesty and colossal failures of judgment. Bush said Kerry was flip-flopping.
Less than two years after voting to give Bush authority to invade Iraq, the Democratic candidate said that had he known there were no banned weapons and had he been president, he would not have followed Bush’s path to war. Bush, also speaking hypothetically, says he would have invaded Iraq, even knowing what he knows now.
“Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell,” Kerry said. “But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war. The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.”
Bush hit back from a campaign rally in New Hampshire. “He’s saying he prefers the stability of a dictatorship to the hope and security of democracy,” the Republican incumbent said.
“Today, my opponent continued his pattern of twisting in the wind,” Bush said. “He apparently woke up this morning and has now decided, No, we should not have invaded Iraq, after just last month saying he would have voted for force even knowing everything we know today.”
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