>>***** Kerry's Foreign Policy Record Suggests Few Differences with Bush
>>by Stephen Zunes
>>www.dissidentvoice.org
>>March 6, 2004
>>
>>Those who had hoped that a possible defeat of President George W.
>>Bush in November would mean real changes in U.S. foreign policy
>>have little to be hopeful about now that Massachusetts Senator John
>>Kerry has effectively captured the Democratic presidential
>>nomination.
>
>God knows I know almost squat about US politics, but do people
>really think that Kerry would have light and concocted intelligence
>to justify attacking Iraq in the wake of 9/11? That seems to be what
>this no difference between him and Bush on foreign policiy thing
>would imply. It seems to me doubtful (seeing through a glass darkly).
Democrats like Kerry in fact did use the same lies as Bush's to justify the invasion of Iraq: "The Democrats and Weapons of Mass Destruction ," January 23, 2004, <http://www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR012304.htm>.
***** . . . In a speech on the Senate floor immediately prior to the October vote, Senator Kerry categorically stated that Saddam Hussein was "attempting to develop nuclear weapons." However, there appears to be no evidence to suggest that Iraq had had an active nuclear program for at least eight to ten years prior to the U.S. invasion. Indeed, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in 1998 and subsequently that Iraq's nuclear program appeared to have been completely dismantled.
To justify his claims of an Iraqi nuclear threat, Senator Kerry claimed that "all U.S. intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons." The reality, of course, was that much of the U.S. intelligence community was highly skeptical of claims that Iraq was attempting to acquire nuclear materials.
Indeed, despite unfettered access by IAEA inspectors to possible Iraqi nuclear facilities between this past November and March and exhaustive searching by U.S. occupation forces since then, no trace has been found of the ongoing Iraqi nuclear program that Senator Kerry claimed existed last fall.
In addition, Senator Kerry stated unequivocally that "Iraq has chemical and biological weapons." He even claimed that most elements of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs "are larger and more advanced than they were before the Gulf War." He did not try to explain how this could be possible, given the limited shelf life of such chemical and biological agents and the strict embargo against imports of any additional banned materials that had been in place since 1990.
The Massachusetts senator also asserted that authorizing a U.S. invasion of that oil-rich country was necessary since "These weapons represent an unacceptable threat."
However, despite inspections by the United Nations Monitoring and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC) and subsequent searches by U.S. forces, no chemical or biological weapons have been found.
Senator Kerry did not stop there, insisting that "Iraq is developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capable of delivering chemical and biological warfare agents, which could threaten Iraq's neighbors as well as American forces in the Persian Gulf."
Again, no such Iraqi UAVs capable of delivering chemical and biological weapons have been found.
In a cynical effort to take advantage of Americans' post-9/11 fears, Kerry went on to claim that "Iraq has some lethal and incapacitating agents and is capable of quickly producing and weaponizing a variety of such agents, including anthrax, for delivery on a range of vehicles such as bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers, and covert operatives which could bring them to the United States homeland."
Despite repeated calls to his Senate office, no one on Kerry's staff has been able to answer my questions as to what happened to all these alleged Iraqi weapons and delivery systems that supposedly threatened our national security. . . .
(Stephen Zunes, "Kerry's Deceptions on Iraq Threaten His Presidential Hopes," August 26, 2003, <http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0826-03.htm>) ***** -- Yoshie
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