Cheney Mocks Kerry's 'Sensitive' War on Terror
44 minutes ago
By Scott Elliott
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=5&u=/nm/20040812/pl_nm/campaign_cheney_dc
DAYTON, Ohio (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) mocked Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) on Thursday for pledging to wage a more "sensitive" war against terrorism.
Cheney's speech in the campaign battleground state of Ohio extended a week of Republican attacks on Kerry's security credentials, and Kerry's camp said it showed desperation in the campaign of President Bush (news - web sites) over losing one of its presumed strengths -- a strong military stance.
"America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive," Cheney said.
He accused the Massachusetts senator of having a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the world.
"Those that threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively, they need to be destroyed," he said.
He accented some form of the word "sensitive" a half-dozen times in his speech and drew laughter from the partisan crowd.
Kerry had told a meeting of minority journalists last week that he could do a better job than Bush of cultivating allies in the war on terrorism. "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side," he said.
Kerry' campaign said Cheney had reached a "new low" by launching "desperate misleading attacks."
"This vice president's lack of sensitivity is precisely what led this administration to ignore the advice of the professional military and rush to war (in Iraq (news - web sites))," Kerry spokesman David Wade said. "We can't afford another four years of their failed insensitive foreign policy."
He contrasted the vice president's lack of military service in the 1960s with Kerry's record as a decorated Vietnam veteran.
Kerry's campaign also pointed to previous remarks by Bush and Cheney that the United States had to be "sensitive" in its use of power.
SECURITY CREDENTIALS
The Bush campaign this week has trained its sights on Kerry's security credentials and launched a new ad touting Bush's leadership against terrorism.
Polls show Bush is vulnerable on Iraq, where U.S. soldiers die daily fighting an unrelenting insurgency, and the economy. However, he is perceived as stronger than Kerry in fighting terrorism.
Bush on Wednesday attacked Kerry's pledge to bring large numbers of troops home from Iraq within a year and said it would jeopardize the U.S. mission there. A day earlier, he accused Kerry of shifting positions on whether the Iraq war was necessary.
Cheney said Kerry "views the world as if we had never been attacked on Sept. 11."
"He has even said that by using our strength, we are creating terrorists and placing ourselves in greater danger," Cheney said. "But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the world we are living in works. Terrorist attacks are not caused by use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness."
Cheney reeled off a list of U.S. war leaders. "President Lincoln and General Grant did not wage sensitive warfare, nor did President Roosevelt, nor Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur," he said.
44 minutes ago
By Scott Elliott
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=5&u=/nm/20040812/pl_nm/campaign_cheney_dc
DAYTON, Ohio (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) mocked Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) on Thursday for pledging to wage a more "sensitive" war against terrorism.
Cheney's speech in the campaign battleground state of Ohio extended a week of Republican attacks on Kerry's security credentials, and Kerry's camp said it showed desperation in the campaign of President Bush (news - web sites) over losing one of its presumed strengths -- a strong military stance.
"America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive," Cheney said.
He accused the Massachusetts senator of having a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the world.
"Those that threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively, they need to be destroyed," he said.
He accented some form of the word "sensitive" a half-dozen times in his speech and drew laughter from the partisan crowd.
Kerry had told a meeting of minority journalists last week that he could do a better job than Bush of cultivating allies in the war on terrorism. "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side," he said.
Kerry' campaign said Cheney had reached a "new low" by launching "desperate misleading attacks."
"This vice president's lack of sensitivity is precisely what led this administration to ignore the advice of the professional military and rush to war (in Iraq (news - web sites))," Kerry spokesman David Wade said. "We can't afford another four years of their failed insensitive foreign policy."
He contrasted the vice president's lack of military service in the 1960s with Kerry's record as a decorated Vietnam veteran.
Kerry's campaign also pointed to previous remarks by Bush and Cheney that the United States had to be "sensitive" in its use of power.
SECURITY CREDENTIALS
The Bush campaign this week has trained its sights on Kerry's security credentials and launched a new ad touting Bush's leadership against terrorism.
Polls show Bush is vulnerable on Iraq, where U.S. soldiers die daily fighting an unrelenting insurgency, and the economy. However, he is perceived as stronger than Kerry in fighting terrorism.
Bush on Wednesday attacked Kerry's pledge to bring large numbers of troops home from Iraq within a year and said it would jeopardize the U.S. mission there. A day earlier, he accused Kerry of shifting positions on whether the Iraq war was necessary.
Cheney said Kerry "views the world as if we had never been attacked on Sept. 11."
"He has even said that by using our strength, we are creating terrorists and placing ourselves in greater danger," Cheney said. "But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the world we are living in works. Terrorist attacks are not caused by use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness."
Cheney reeled off a list of U.S. war leaders. "President Lincoln and General Grant did not wage sensitive warfare, nor did President Roosevelt, nor Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur," he said.
