2 Kerry editorials in the local newspapers about security

[Mass]

In the Boston Herald

Post-9/11 policy hasn’t made world safer: Rather than occupying Iraq, we must destroy al-Qaeda
By John Kerry
Saturday, September 9, 2006

Five years after Sept. 11, where are we? Bogged down in Baghdad, beleaguered around the world and bitterly divided at home.
Democrats have a unique responsibility not just to oppose what has failed but to propose a new course that can defeat jihadist terrorism once and for all.
There are many things we can and must do better, but there are five steps to start: Redeploy from Iraq, recommit to Afghanistan, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, reform our homeland defense and restore America’s moral leadership in the world. These are five bold steps Democrats would take to strengthen our national security, and that the Republicans who have set the agenda resist to our national peril.


We must refocus our military efforts from the failed occupation of Iraq to destroying al-Qaeda. Iraqi leaders have responded only to deadlines and we must set another deadline to get Iraq up on its own two feet: July 2007. We also need real diplomacy. Only through negotiation can you stem the growing civil war. Redeploy troops from Iraq, maintain training forces and an over-the-horizon capacity, and free up resources to fight the war on terror.
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And the Union Leader
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=John+Kerry%3A+Switch+the+fight+to+Afghanistan&articleId=5e6a24ea-aaee-4ac6-ac67-ed0b000fd338

John Kerry: Switch the fight to Afghanistan

By SEN. JOHN KERRY

12 hours, 5 minutes ago

Donald Rumsfeld — who should have been fired as secretary of defense long ago — gave an ugly speech in which he spoke of “moral confusion.”

There certainly is a lot of moral confusion around these days. It is immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die for a strategy that has not weakened terrorism but worsened it. It is immoral to treat 9/11 as a political pawn — and to continue to excuse the invasion of Iraq by exploiting the 3,000 mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who were lost that day. They were attacked and killed not by Saddam Hussein but by Osama bin Laden.

President Bush has a strategy to try to win an election. We need leadership that has a strategy to win the War on Terror.

Iraq has made America less safe. The terrorists are not on the run. Terrorist acts tripled between 2004 and 2005. Al-Qa-da has spawned a decentralized network operating in 65 countries, most of them joining since 9/11. Only Dick Cheney could call this a success.

The situation in Afghanistan deteriorates steadily. The Taliban now controls entire portions of southern Afghanistan, and across the border Pakistan is one coup away from becoming a radical jihadist state with nuclear weapons. Only George Bush could declare this “mission accomplished.”
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[blm]

1. GD needs to eyeball these.

.