Bush: yes or no Kerry?
President Bush demanded yesterday that Senator John F. Kerry to give a
clear "yes or no" about the war in Iraq. The question is, knowing what
we know now would he have voted to go to war with Iraq?
"That's an important question, and the American people deserve a clear
'yes' or 'no' answer," Bush said "I have given my answer. We did the
right thing, and the world is better off for it."
Kerry refused to answer the question previously when being interviewed
by CBS correspondent Dan Rather.
Kerry has repeatedly said he thinks it was right to depose Saddam
Hussein and has not ruled out the possibility that he would have wound
up leading an invasion if he had been president. He has further stated
that the authorization required that the President gain the support of
our allies. Kerry has consistently said that our allies that have
supported us don’t count.
Susan Rice, Kerry's foreign policy adviser, said in response, "If
George W. Bush wants to debate the way he rushed our country into war,
I'm sure the American people would welcome that debate."
Stand by your reporter
The
Boston Globe is standing by their reporter Michael
Kranish. Karnish is accused by retired Lieutenant Commander George
Elliott of being misquoted in an article that stated he made a mistake
in signing an affidavit that Kerry did not deserve his Silver Star.
Elliot was Sen. John Kerry’s commander in Vietnam and signed the
recommendation for Kerry to receive the Silver Star. There is a
controversy as to whether Kerry and his crew were in danger from a
fleeing wounded Viet Cong carrying a rocket launcher. There is also
controversy as to whether Kerry shot the fleeing soldier in the back.
The Globe states that in a new affidavit, Elliott said, "had I known
the facts I would not have recommended Kerry for the Silver Star
simply for pursuing and dispatching a single wounded Viet Cong." He
added, "I do not claim to have any personal knowledge as to how Kerry
shot the wounded, fleeing Viet Cong."
No Conflict of Interest
The Globe also stands by Karnish that he never was involved in writing
a forward to a Kerry campaign document as was reported on Drudge.
Globe Editor Martin Baron said Kranish had no connection to the Kerry
campaign book and did not write its introduction.
The Globe reports:
Baron noted that earlier this summer Kranish worked with PublicAffairs
-- the publisher of the Boston Globe biography of Kerry, "John F.
Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know
Him Best" -- to write a short introduction to a second project: an
independent, unauthorized review of publicly available documents
dealing with the platform and policy statements of Kerry and Edwards.
That project was in no way connected with the Kerry-Edwards campaign,
Baron said.
"When PublicAffairs subsequently struck an agreement with the Kerry
campaign to do an official campaign book, Kranish's relationship with
the project immediately ended," Baron said.
Peter Osnos, publisher of PublicAffairs, said both Drudge and Amazon,
the online bookseller peddling the upcoming Kerry-Edwards book, had
made a mistake in suggesting Kranish had written its introduction.
With this affirmation and renewed affidavit by Elliot, the ad by Swift
Boat Veterans is unlikely to be pulled from television stations.
Elliot’s new affidavit is even more affirming that Kerry should not
have received the Silver Star and this from his commander who would
have recommended Kerry for the medal. This from Elliot, who defended
Kerry’s right to the medal in Kerry’s 1986 U.S. Senate campaign.
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