Kerry's problem
September 21, 2004, 10:55 AM
Kerry's problem
By Terry Bohannon
As Kerry's speech Monday at New York University shows, the only way Kerry thinks he can get ahead is by misrepresenting the truth.
In that speech, Kerry showed that he has been watching Fahrenheit 9/11 far too much as he suggested that Iraq was better under Saddam Hussein. He said:
Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell. 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.
According to a human right's dossier [PDF] prepared by the UK government and summarized by the BBC, the torture under Saddam included eye gouging, piercing of hands with electric drill, suspension from ceiling by their wrists, electric shock, sexual abuse (Saddam had professional rapists), mock executions, and even acid baths.
The summary of this dossier shows that women lacked freedom and even the right to life under Saddam's regime:
Under Saddam Hussein's regime women lack even the basic right to life. A 1990 decree allows male relatives to kill a female relative in the name of honour without punishment.
Women have been tortured, ill-treated and in some cases summarily executed too, according to Amnesty International.
The dossier says that BBC correspondent John Sweeney said he had met six witnesses with direct experience of child torture, including the crushing of a two-year-old girl's feet.
Yet Kerry does not see this as reason enough to oust Saddam. He said, “we have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.” That misrepresentation only served to placate his base.
Kerry suggested that Saddam, was 'only a dictator' and did not pose a threat to our national security; yet as he side steps the horror of the Saddam regime and Saddam's interest in WMD, Kerry shows that he cares more about winning than the truth.
If the truth about Saddam or even Kerry's (Not Kerrey's) own Senate record cannot place him ahead of President Bush, untruths and misrepresentations will only place him further behind.
Kerry's drive to sidestep the truth for political gain shows that as President, his indecisive and uncertain 'leadership' would make Paris the king of us all — as Sen. Zell Miller suggested in his speech.
In this Post-9/11 world where the threat of terrorism is taken seriously, we don't need a president that would only “have tightened the noose” to “isolate Saddam Hussein so that he would pose no threat to the region or America” as Kerry claimed in that speech to NYU.
America deserves a president who will wage a war against terrorists and the regimes that support them. America deserves a true leader as president. Our country is not better served by someone who tears down his opponents with untruth so he then appears (by contrast) to be the best option left, America deserves someone who rises to leadership in confidence and can take the lead naturally in times of crisis. America deserves President Bush.
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