In the first presidential debate where we saw John Kerry and George W. Bush discuss major issues for the first time face to face, the facts show that
both candidates fiddled with the truth of their answers to tough questions. Each candidate tried to pound home certain key words and key phrases to
show where they stand on issues such as Iraq, terrorism and North Korea, but neither of them fully acknowledge the truth of the situations.
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So who was telling the truth?
No American combat units were transferred from Afghanistan to Iraq, but about half of the Special Forces who were hunting bin Laden were pulled off
and sent to Iraq, and many of the CIA's intelligence assets also were transferred to Iraq. Kerry was correct that the United States relied on three
Afghan warlords to capture bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders, and that they failed to do so in a battle at Tora Bora. However, that wasn't because
American troops had been sent from Afghanistan to Iraq.
The president suggested that the war in Iraq was connected to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying, "The enemy attacked us." The federal Sept. 11
commission, however, said that so far, it found no evidence "indicating that Iraq cooperated with al-Qaida in developing or carrying out any attacks
against the United States."
In addition, Defense Intelligence Agency analysts concluded in several papers in 2002 that even if Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons, it
was unlikely to give them to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
Bush was correct in saying that Saddam had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction, but Kerry was also correct when he said many more
countries also have that capacity. Kerry also was correct that North Korea is believed to have four to seven nuclear weapons and that Iran is
accelerating its pursuit of them. However, Kerry's suggestion that North Korea went nuclear because Bush took his eye off the ball is wrong: The CIA
believed the North Koreans had one or two weapons by the mid-1990s.
Iraq's U.S.-appointed interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has publicly supported Bush's contention that elections are on track for January. According
to U.S. military commanders in Iraq, the president was correct that 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and police have been trained. However, the quality of that
training has been open to question, and the U.S. military commanders acknowledge that the Iraqis have sometimes performed poorly in combat
situations.
Kerry was correct that while Bush promised he'd plan carefully for a war in Iraq, his administration ignored a huge State Department "Future of Iraq"
project, ignored intelligence warnings that the country could descend into chaos and failed to include enough troops to secure the country's borders,
nuclear plants and ammunition dumps. Kerry also was right that the only government building in Baghdad that was guarded by American troops after the
city fell was the oil ministry.
And while the CIA's assessment of Iraq's future is bleak and even many of Bush's advisers believe that he's overly optimistic about the chances for
successful elections in Iraq, Kerry's claim that he could recruit other nations to help out there is probably overly optimistic, too. France and
Germany have said they wouldn't send troops to Iraq under any circumstances.
Bush's main line of attack all evening was his charge that Kerry keeps changing positions on Iraq. In fact, while Kerry admitted Thursday night that
he hasn't always expressed himself clearly, he's never backed away from his vote authorizing the war and he's always said that Bush should have sought
more international help.
When he voted for the war resolution in October 2002, Kerry made it clear that he favored a "multilateral effort" if diplomacy failed.
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Depending on our personal preferences we all saw the truth as we wanted, however knowing the facts and realizing that politics is simply a game, it
should be in our best interest to keep ourselves informed.
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Kerry is not a flip-flopper: Verified by Factcheck.org