The University of Pennsylvania speech in light of the London events

[karynnj]

On KG's thread on the Hill reporter's meltdown on the conference call after Kerry calmly, but politely defined the media's role, there was a poster who had just read of BCCI and Iran/Contra and was surprised how much a hero Kerry really is and questioned why little was said of this in 2004. (The topic of the whole thread was part of the answer.) Looking for the transcript of the terror speech, even knowing Kerry was right, I was shocked reading the WP coverage - in light of the London arrests.

"The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy -- al Qaeda," Kerry said. "The president's misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement . . . all make the war on terror harder to win. George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority. I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority."
,snip>
The Democratic nominee promised to destroy terrorist networks by going after their arms and financing; to revamp and enhance the intelligence apparatus to ferret them out; to build up an overstretched military by 40,000 troops; to support Middle Eastern democracies; and to increase funding for homeland security and for more intense cargo inspections at ports and other points of entry. "

The page has a link to the transcript too.

[wisteria]

1. Can you provide a link to the page? n/t

[karynnj]

2. OOPS - I had meant to add it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48716-2004Sep24.html

[wisteria]

3. Thank you! It is amazing to me how he realized back in 04

what needed to be done and laid it all out, only to be smacked down by so called unpartizan "experts". I also liked the Bush campaigns comments that they are all ready implementing some of what Kerry suggested- yeah right, sure they were.

[karynnj]

4. That was my reaction too.

I remembered the speech, but had forgotten some of the details. All 2004, the Republicans sarcasticly responded that they were doing what Kerry said he would do on both Iraq and the WoT -when they weren't mocking his suggestions. Time has shown that they haven't.

I hadn't seen this article and only found it because I was using google to search for the transcript of the speech. It is sad that Kerry was so brilliant, so sincere and so honest in this speech - unlike the Republicans - and the media presented both sides as equally true.