Three more US soldiers died in Iraq last night. For
what? A neo-con wet dream...
Howad Dean, Associated Press: "I can assure you it's not Saddam who's threatening to bomb airplanes," Dean said. "It's al-Qaida. We've not paid attention to al-Qaida. We've spent $160 billion, lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong target."
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040102/ap_on_el_pr/dean_terrorism
Dean Cites Terror Alert As Vindication
Fri Jan 2, 6:53 PM ET
By HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press Writer
NASHUA, N.H. - Democratic presidential hopeful Howard
Dean (news - web sites) on Friday cited the higher
terror alert and the number of U.S. troops killed in
Iraq (news - web sites) in arguing that he was right
to say Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s capture
didn't make America safer.
"They got all excited, but here we are," Dean told a
town-hall meeting. "We've lost 10 more troops and
F-16s are escorting foreign passenger jets into our
air space because we're now more worried than we were
before."
Last month, Dean's rivals assailed the front-runner
when he said within a day of the Iraqi leader's
capture that his apprehension had not made the United
States safer, a direct contradiction of President Bush
(news - web sites).
Since then, the national terrorism alert has been
raised to orange and U.S. troops have been killed in
Iraq.
"I can assure you it's not Saddam who's threatening to
bomb airplanes," Dean said. "It's al-Qaida. We've not
paid attention to al-Qaida. We've spent $160 billion,
lost over 400 servicemen, and wounded and permanently
maimed over 2,000 people because we picked the wrong
target."
Dean said even though he opposed the Iraq war, his
greatest fear now is that "this administration will
pull out of Iraq too early for political reasons,"
Dean said.
If that happens, al-Qaida will move into Iraq and
become more powerful than ever.
"My fear is that the (Karl) Rove polls will tell him
(Bush), 'You've gotta get out, you've gotta get out,'
and he'll start doing that," Dean said, referring to
Bush's chief political adviser.