USA: War of words heats up ahead of U.S. Congressional elections

Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry drew election-year fire from President George W. Bush and other Republicans on Tuesday (October 31, 2006) for saying college students could "get stuck in Iraq" if they do not study hard. But Kerry, who unsuccessfully challenged Bush in the 2004 presidential election, refused to apologise and said his remark was a "botched joke" aimed at the president, not U.S. troops. With the Iraq war a dominant issue in the Nov. 7 elections, Kerry's comment on Monday (October 30) gave Republicans, struggling to maintain control of the U.S. Congress, a chance to fight back. Kerry's office said later the Massachusetts Democrat had misread his prepared remarks that included the words "Just ask President Bush," which he omitted. Kerry, who was criticised for mishandling national security issues during his losing White House campaign, angrily accused Republicans who have never been in war of making unfounded attacks. "I make apologies to no one about my criticism of the president and his broken policy that kills and maims our heroes in Iraq every single day. This pathetic attempt to distort a botched joke about President Bush is a shameful effort to distract from a botched war," Kerry said in a statement. The Massachusetts Democrat, combative at a news conference in Seattle insisted: "I apologise to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy. If anyone owes our troops in the fields an apology, it is the president and his failed team and a Republican majority in the Congress that has been willing to stamp - rubber-stamp - policies that have done injury to our troops and their families." While campaigning in California, Kerry told a college crowd on Monday: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Kerry's office released his prepared remarks, which said, "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush." Bush quickly seized on the controversy, demanding that Kerry apologise. "The senator's suggestion that the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and it is shameful," Bush said at a campaign rally in Georgia where the crowd booed at Kerry's quote. "The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology," Bush said. Paul Morin, national commander of the 2.7 million-member American Legion, the nation's biggest veterans' organization, expressed outrage.

ITN Source | November 1, 2006

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