Kennedy: Iraq 'Bush's Vietnam'

2004-04-06 06:44

Washington - Iraq has become "George Bush's Vietnam".

This was the view of US senator Edward Kennedy on Monday. Kennedy called the president deceitful and, for the first time, compared him to former President Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace.

Saying that truth has become the biggest casualty of the Bush administration, Kennedy said Bush misled the public about the war, the economy, health care and education, eroding the nation's reputation at home and abroad.

"As a result, this president has now created the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon," Kennedy said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. "He has broken the basic bond of trust with the American people."

The senator said the government has cut unemployment benefits, failed to pay for education overhaul and is spending $134bn more than expected on a medicare plan.

Kennedy is a strong supporter of John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

The criticism of the administration's domestic agenda comes after several high-profile speeches in which Kennedy called the war in Iraq a fraud and said the plan to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was devised to help Republicans in the 2002 and 2004 elections.

- SAPA