"America needs leadership that tells the truth"
Democratic White House challenger John Kerry said on Thursday interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had abetted President Bush in putting the "best face" on an Iraq policy in disarray.
Pounding his Republican rival on the war and its chaotic aftermath for a fourth consecutive day, Kerry also ridiculed Bush for leaving New York after his address to the U.N. General Assembly this week without meeting enough foreign leaders.
The Massachusetts senator questioned assertions by Allawi, a key ally of the Bush administration, that Iraq would hold elections in January despite the flaring insurgency and that "we are succeeding in Iraq."
"I think the prime minister is obviously contradicting his own statement of a few days ago when he said that terrorists are pouring into the country," Kerry told reporters.
"The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy, but the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operations and the troops all tell a different story."
Patricia Wilson/Reuters 23.Sep.04
