Mission Done? Bush: Yes; Kerry: No
President Bush on Friday defended his speech a year ago on the deck of an aircraft carrier proclaiming the end of major combat in Iraq and said "we're making progress, you bet" in bringing stability to the war-torn country.
"A year ago I did give the speech from the carrier saying we had achieved an important objective, accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein," Mr. Bush told reporters in the White House Rose Garden.
"As a result, there are no longer torture chambers or mass graves or rape rooms in Iraq,'' the president said.
It is a year on Saturday since the president stood on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln beneath a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished'' and announced that major combat in Iraq had ended.
Critics have derided the banner's declaration as U.S. casualties mounted over the past year, with fighting particularly deadly in recent weeks.
Democrat John Kerry said Friday that a year after Mr. Bush's speech, the United States has still not accomplished the mission of stabilizing Iraq.
"We need to put pride aside to build a stable Iraq," Kerry said in a speech prepared for delivery Friday. "We must reclaim our country's standing in the world by doing what has kept America safe and made it more secure before — leading in a way that brings others to us so that we are respected, not simply feared, around the globe."
Kerry was speaking Friday at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., four days after Vice President Dick Cheney denounced the Democrat's leadership on the same campus and one day before the anniversary of Mr. Bush's speech.
"I don't think there's anyone in this room today or 6,000 miles away who doesn't wish that those words had been true," Kerry said. "But we've seen the news. We've seen the pictures. And we know we are living through days of great danger."
Kerry has chastised the president for failing to get more international assistance. He has said that other nations have an interest in a peaceful Iraq, so the United States should reach out to them to share the cost.
Kerry said that attempting to achieve a stable Iraq with a representative government secure in its borders will be difficult and there will be no guarantee of success. But he said the anniversary of Mr. Bush's speech "is a moment of truth."
"This may be our last chance to get this right," he said.
Westminster College President Fletcher Lamkin invited Kerry to speak on the campus this week, saying Cheney's speech there Monday amounted to "Kerry-bashing" and the Massachusetts senator has a right to respond.
In 1946 the college was the site of British statesman Winston Churchill's address warning of an "Iron Curtain" descending across postwar Europe. It's also at the center of a battleground state in the presidential race, and Cheney sought to raise questions about Kerry's vision in a time of war.
"The senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security," Cheney said during his visit Monday.
Kerry invoked the memory of Churchill and President Truman — a Missouri native — in his response. "President Truman could have used America's power as an excuse to go it alone in the world. Instead, he joined with the leaders of many nations to create institutions like NATO and other alliances to preserve peace, spur economic progress and address global problems."
Kerry's response was an opportunity for him to highlight what could become one of Mr. Bush's biggest vulnerabilities in the election – recent polls show public doubts are growing about Iraq and the president's handling of the war. Yet this has not transferred into support for Kerry.
Kerry's aides said this was designed to be a thoughtful address explaining his vision for Iraq rather than more partisan sniping with Republicans. But Kerry's response on the campaign trail this week showed he was clearly miffed by Cheney's accusations.
On Thursday, Kerry accused Republicans of distorting his record through "scare-tactic politics." Kerry cited his service in the Vietnam War and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and said he had voted for the largest defense and intelligence budgets in U.S. history.
"To suggest to Americans that I, who have already defended my country, wouldn't defend it today is an insult to the intelligence of Americans," he told donors gathered at Philadelphia City Hall.
Also Thursday, CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reports the Kerry campaign announced that it had met its goal of raising $80 million by the Democratic convention in July. Now that Kerry has met the goal, the campaign said it will now raise the bar, going for $100 million by the convention.
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