Flashback: Kerry-Edwards, Campaign 2004
It is Sunday, November 21, 2004. Senator John Kerry, Democrat from Massachusetts, waits with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, actors Robin Williams and Morgan Freeman and comedian Chris Tucker for the procession to begin at the formal opening of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark. Less than three weeks earlier the senator had suffered a most humiliating electoral defeat at the hands of incumbent President George W. Bush. FOX News correspondent Geraldo Rivera offers a sympathetic word.
"Tough luck, senator," Rivera said to Kerry, referring to the Democrat's election loss.
Trying to recount Kerry's words verbatim, Rivera said Kerry responded by saying:
"It was that Usama tape — it scared them [the American people]."
Rivera
said Kerry said the tape came out too late for his camp to rebut and
the Democratic campaign couldn't counteract it in time for the Tuesday
election.
"Sen. Kerry clearly believes not only is it
the security issue that cost him the election, but very specifically
the Usama tapes coming out in the 11th hour," Rivera reported Friday.
Kerry also acknowledged that the security issue in general hurt him in the race, Rivera said.
The
broadcast of the tape from the Al Qaeda leader jolted the campaign's
closing days, accentuating the terrorism theme with a reminder of the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In the tape, aired by
the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, bin Laden spoke directly to the
American people. He admitted for the first time that he carried out the
Sept. 11 attacks and said the attacks would have been less severe if
Bush had been more alert.
He promised to lay
out "the best way to avoid another Manhattan" and told Americans, "Your
security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al Qaeda. Your
security is in your own hands."
The tape caused
Kerry to revive his contention that Bush missed an opportunity to
capture or kill bin Laden during the Afghan war. The Democratic
challenger asserted throughout the campaign that U.S. forces could have
run down bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains in late 2001 if they had gone after him on the ground, and he
blamed Bush for the decision to let Afghan forces lead that chase. [My emphasis]
After five years and a week of pent up frustration, Senator Kerry finds vindication, thanks to the staff of the Democratic majority on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And thanks to the committee chairman, too. That would be Senator John Kerry, Democrat from Massachusetts.
U.S. forces missed chance to get bin Laden: report
Sun Nov 29, 2009 6:29am EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military could have captured or killed Osama bin Laden in 2001 if it had launched a concerted attack on his hideout in Afghanistan, according to a report prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The report, written by staff working for the Democratic majority on the committee, said the al Qaeda leader's escape was a lost opportunity that altered the course of the war and paved the way for insurgencies in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
[...]
The report was especially critical of military leaders under former
President George W. Bush, including former Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld and his top military commander, retired General Tommy Franks.
Democratic Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the committee, has
argued the Bush administration missed a chance to get bin Laden and his
top lieutenants in Tora Bora just months after the September 11 attacks
on the United States.
Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election to Bush.
Lest we are tempted to write this off as just so much in the way of sour grapes, consider the timing of the committee report. It's release comes just two days ahead of President Obama's long, long, long awaited decision on General Stanley McChrystal's request for additional troops for the Afghan war. The president will announce his decision on Tuesday in a prime-time speech from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York.
Updated November 28, 2009
Obama Faces Tough Task in Outlining
Afghanistan Strategy, Experts Say
FOXNews.com
In his prime-time speech from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, Obama is expected to announce he's sending up to 35,000 more troops -- while trying to affirm he has found a clear path of success in a country known as the graveyard of empires President Obama said he intended to "finish the job" in Afghanistan. Now he has to say how.
It will be a tough sell. But winning the war will be tougher, and no one can predict with absolute certainty what Obama will say until he says it. But here's a guess: He won't wait long to remind America and the world that he inherited this mess.
