John Kerry Responds to Bush's Speech to the Military Officers Association of America

The White House released an updated version of their anti-terrorism strategy today, and Bush backed up the release with a speech to the Military Officers Association of America. In his speech today, Bush quoted Osama bin Laden, in effort to back up his own failed policies. Watch a clip of Bush quoting Osama here.

John Kerry responded to Bush's speech today and his quoting bin Laden with a serious slap down of Bush's failed policies:

“If President Bush had unleashed the American military to do the job at Tora Bora four years ago and killed Osama bin Laden, he wouldn’t have to quote this barbarian’s words today. Because President Bush lost focus on the killers who attacked us and instead launched a disastrous war in Iraq, today Osama bin Laden and his henchmen still find sanctuary in the no-man’s land between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they still plot attacks against America. In a feat of incompetence and ideology, this administration has chosen to fight the primary battle in the wrong place in the wrong way.

“President Bush says Osama bin Laden and the terrorists plan to target America’s ‘weak points.’ That’s why it’s even more unacceptable that while the president gives speeches, our borders remain porous and our ports, chemical plants and railways remain insecure. Over here, our weak points remain weak because this administration has had the wrong priorities. And over there, Afghanistan is slipping back into chaos, Pakistan is one coup away from becoming a radical Islamic state with nuclear weapons, Iran is closer to a nuclear arsenal, and Iraq has become a recruitment poster for terror. Only Donald Rumsfeld could call this a plan for victory. A new document may get the Administration through the next news cycle, but it will not win the war on terror. We need to change course, not more of the same.”

Although Bush made a point of quoting Osama bin Laden today, the N.Y. Times noted in a piece about the White House "anti-terrorism" report and Bush's speech today, that "absent from the report was any mention of Osama bin Laden."

"The report gives relatively few specifics concerning what it calls the most urgent problem that of denying terrorists access to unconventional weapons and fissile material in particular," the N.Y. Times notes. In other words... Where's the plan BushCo? We all know the answer to that one -- there is no real plan. It's just more of the same old failed rhetoric and fear-mondering tactics.

Bush also made a point of likening the terrorist's "ideology to fascism," and put a heavy emphasis on the BushCo "freedom agenda."

The WaPo has key points of the BushCo National Strategy For Combating Terrorism and the full report is available here.