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Kerry pounds Bush on bin Laden
30/10/2004 18:34 - (SA)
Appletion, Wiscnosin - Democratic challenger John Kerry on Saturday berated President George W Bush for failing to destroy Osama bin Laden, a day after the terrorist mastermind roiled the US election campaign with a new videotape.
Kerry, stung by attacks on Friday in which Bush accused him of a "shameful" attempt to reap political gain from the tape, promised he would provide better leadership in the global anti-terror campaign.
"As I have said for two years now, when Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, it was wrong to outsource the job of capturing them to Afghan warlords who a week earlier were fighting against us," Kerry said in a rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin.
Kerry said Bush should instead have used "the best-trained troops in the world, who wanted to avenge America for what happened in New York and Pennsylvania and in Washington," a reference to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"It was wrong to divert our forces from Afghanistan so we could rush to war in Iraq without a plan to win the peace," said Kerry.
"It is my pledge to you: I will use all of the power that we have and all the leadership skill I can summon - and that is, believe me, more than what we have today.
"I will lead the world in fighting a smarter, more effective, tougher, more strategic war on terror, and we will make America safer," Kerry declared.
- SAPA
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