John Kerry on Bush’s American Legion Speech: America Less Safe, More Divided Because of Failed Policies

Cross posted from The Democratic Daily:

George W. Bush started up the spin machine today in a speech to the American Legion, in attempts to "rally the American people behind him on the Iraq war and national security." In deep denial, Bush just doesn't get that he's not going to regain the support he once had. He's squandered the trust and faith of the American people, by declaring, like a broken record that the U.S. must "stay the course" in Iraq.

Aware that he's floudering pitifully in the polls, Bush once again "invoked the approaching anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to rebut that view." John Kerry issued the following response to Bush's empty rhetoric today:

“America’s veterans and American troops don’t need misleading speeches, they need the President to finally tell it straight and finally change course in the civil war in Iraq. By any measure, five years after 9/11, America is less safe and more divided because of President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld. Enough with slogans and staged speeches calculated to divide here at home while things get worse in Iraq, Afghanistan, and across the Middle East. No more rhetoric while Osama bin Laden is on the loose, homeland security is under funded and our borders are porous. No more speeches from an administration that has shortchanged our soldiers and allowed a $1 billion shortfall in our veterans’ health care budget. We need leadership that is better at destroying terrorists than it is at talking about terror for political gain.”

And speaking of "propoganda" the WaPo reported today that "U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq."