Bush Has Sullied U.S. Reputation, Kerry Charges

As President Bush neared completion of a trip abroad marked by protests, Sen. John F. Kerry lashed out at him Monday for policies that he charged had strained the nation’s relationship with allies and left its reputation in tatters.

Kerry said every newspaper he read Monday morning “wrote about how Bush is trying to save face at the meeting in Ireland, or Bush is trying to salvage something out of NATO. Or Bush is trying to repair his relationship with Turkey, repair his relationship with Germany, repair his relationship with France.”

The Democratic presidential candidate added, “The question should appropriately be asked by all Americans: Why do we have a president who four years into his term is in a state of repair or disrepair? We deserve a president who knows how to get it right from the beginning.”

Kerry’s comments, made by telephone to an American Nurses Assn. meeting in Minneapolis, came as Bush was in Turkey for a NATO summit -- the first since the Iraq war, which was strongly opposed by France and Germany.

Leaders of the two countries continued to make their objections clear at the NATO meeting. Bush’s presence in Turkey, meanwhile, sparked demonstrations against him. Protests also occurred in Ireland, which Bush visited during the weekend.

Although Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, supported the congressional resolution authorizing the war against Iraq, he has argued for months that Bush hurt the United States’ standing in the world by not gaining more international backing for the invasion and subsequent rebuilding efforts. On Monday, Kerry seized the backdrop of Bush’s foreign trip -- as well as the transfer of sovereignty by the U.S.-led coalition to an interim Iraqi government -- to reiterate his contentions.

In comments to reporters after he spoke to the nurses’ group, Kerry said that 90% of the coalition troops on the ground in Iraq were American and that the American people were shouldering 90% of the costs of the rebuilding there. He also charged that the agreement Bush brokered with NATO leaders for help in Iraq -- mainly, to train and equip Iraqi security forces -- fell far short of the mark.

“I believe it is critical that the president get real support -- not resolutions, not words -- but real support of sufficient personnel, troops and money to assist in the training of security forces in order to be able to guarantee a rapid, real transition,” Kerry said. “Most importantly, in order to be able to provide adequate security on the ground.”

He added: “You must have security on the ground in order to be able to proceed forward with the reconstruction and the political transformation.”

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt derided Kerry’s comments.

“The Iraqi people made history today and so did John Kerry with his unprecedented pessimism about today’s progress in Iraq,” he said.

Kerry, who spoke to reporters on the tarmac at Baltimore/Washington International Airport, was asked whether he was disappointed that several NATO countries were not prepared to provide more support in Iraq.

“I regret that the president hasn’t brought them to the place where they do,” Kerry said.

“I believe it’s possible to achieve more, personally, and I still hope that the president will do so. But ... today’s papers are filled with stories about how angry these countries are about the way they’ve been treated by this administration.”