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US elections battle heats up
26/10/2004 12:04 - (SA)
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| Bush, Kerry draw up battlelines |
| High noon for Bush, Kerry |
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| Bush, Kerry neck and neck |
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Michigan - Democratic candidate John Kerry on Monday charged President George W Bush with "incredible incompetence" over the disappearance of powerful explosives in Iraq, while Bush accused his rival of offering a "strategy of pessimism and retreat" in Iraq.
The hundreds of tons of vanished explosives re-ignited the debate over Iraq, with just eight days before the November 2 election, while former president Bill Clinton let his political star power shine on Kerry in a bid to fire up the Democratic party base.
Polls showed the race a virtual dead heat with Bush maintaining a statistically insignificant lead on a national level. The battle for decisive electoral votes awarded on the state level was still too close to call.
Bush avoided speaking about the missing explosives, but castigated Kerry for criticising the US-led invasion.
Kerry "calls America's missions in Iraq a mistake, a diversion, a colossal error. Then he says he's the right man to win the war," said Bush. "You cannot win a war you do not believe in fighting."
Strategy of pessimism
"On Iraq, my opponent has a strategy of pessimism and retreat," the president said. "He has sent the signal that America's overriding goal in Iraq would be to leave, even if the job is not done."
But Kerry pounced on reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that 350 metric tons of explosives had vanished from an unguarded military site shortly after the US-led invasion in March 2003.
The UN's nuclear watchdog said the material could be used in conventional bombs or to trigger an explosion in a nuclear device.
"George W Bush, who talks tough, talks tough, and brags about making America safer has once again failed to deliver," Kerry said in a rally in Dover, New Hampshire.
"After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq this president failed to guard those stockpiles.
Great blunders of administration
"Terrorists could use this material to kill our troops, our people, blow up airplanes and level buildings," Kerry said.
"This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration, Kerry said, adding that "incredible incompetence" by Bush had put US troops and the United States at great risk.
Bush aides scrambled to contain the damage, saying the White House had only learned of the missing explosives in early October, and charging that Kerry lacked a clear vision for prosecuting the war on terror.
Critics have long said too few troops were deployed to secure Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. They blame poor planning and the mistaken assumption that Iraqis would welcome US-led forces with open arms.
Meanwhile, Clinton, looking thinner but smiling broadly, made his first appearance since undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery seven weeks ago to add star power to the sometimes-monotone Kerry campaign.
- AFP
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