Kerry accuses Bush of 'outright incompetence' in Iraq war

1.00pm - By DAVID USBORNE in New York

Senator John Kerry yesterday made his most aggressive and comprehensive attack yet against George Bush and his pursuit of the war in Iraq - accusing him of "outright incompetence" and "reckless mistakes" - one day before the President was due to deliver a major foreign policy address at the United Nations.

Speaking at New York University, Mr Kerry was trying to recover the initiative and put the President on the defensive on Iraq and foreign policy. They remain issues, however, on which Mr Bush holds a strong edge in the opinion polls, notwithstanding the continuing violence and loss of life in Iraq.

Pounding the President, the Democrat senator charged him with consistently misleading the public about both the rationale for invading Iraq and the consequences of it, failing to win meaningful support from other nations and losing the focus on the more important war against terrorism.

"Iraq was a profound diversion from that war and the battle against our greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden and the terrorists," Mr Kerry declared.

"Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions and, if we do not change course, there is the prospect of a war with no end in sight."

Far more critical for Mr Kerry may be the upcoming presidential debates. After weeks of negotiating, the two camps have agreed to hold three face-to-face presidential debates over two weeks.

In a joint statement, the campaigns said the first of the televised debates September 30 in Coral Gables, Florida, would focus on foreign policy and homeland security. The second, scheduled for October 8 in St Louis, Missouri, will cover "all subjects." The final debate, on October 13 in Tempe, Arizona, will focus on domestic and economic policy.

They also announced agreement on a vice presidential debate between incumbent Dick Cheney and Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. It will take place on October 5 in Cleveland and will cover all topics.


Hoping to pre-empt Mr Bush's own address at the UN, Mr Kerry said that at "every fork in the road", the President had "taken the wrong turn and has led us in the wrong direction".

Also on the eve of Bush's UN address, domestic and foreign critics of his Iraq war policy, including President Jacques Chirac of France, attended a conference at UN headquarters on how to combat the dark side of globalisation by fighting poverty.

Kerry urged Mr Bush to convene a summit in New York this week of leaders of America's allies and of countries neighbouring Iraq to insist that they commit troops to help return security to Iraq.

He concluded by urging four priorities to help salvage the Iraqi policy: getting more help from allies, accelerating the training of Iraqi forces, focusing on reconstruction projects to benefit ordinary Iraqis and taking steps to guarantee that elections will be held next year as promised.

He said that if these could be achieved, US troops would start leaving Iraq next summer and would be gone entirely in four years. With his speech, Mr Kerry signalled that he intends hammering Mr Bush on Iraq all the way until election day.

Outwardly, the President may seem vulnerable. Even some of his own Republican senators voiced criticism of his Iraqi stance at the weekend and last week word surfaced that in its latest formal analysis of the situation, the US intelligence warned Mr Bush that Iraq could be sliding into civil war.

The tactic carries considerable risks, however. The Bush camp will continue to allege that Mr Kerry is himself confused about Iraq, highlighting the vote he cast in the Senate actually to authorise the President to wage the war against Saddam Hussein.

Mr Bush will also characterise any promises by Mr Kerry to begin withdrawing American soldiers as a policy of weakness. It will send a "a clear signal of defeat and retreat to America's enemies that will make the world a far more dangerous place," a Bush campaign spokesman, Steve Schmidt, commented.

Trying to turn the tables, Mr Kerry suggested that Bush has himself been guilty of grave inconsistencies.

"By one count, the president offered 23 different rationales for this war" the Senator declared.

"If his purpose was to confuse and mislead the American people, he succeeded."

As the moment of invasion seventeen months ago approached, the President was "in denial," he said.

"He hitched his wagon to the ideologues who surround him, filtering out those who disagreed, including leaders of his own party and the uniformed military. The result is a long litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences."

- INDEPENDENT and REUTERS