Kerry Vows to Rebuild Alliances, Confront Terrorism

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=1802&e=4&u=/washpost/20040528/ts_washpost/a60588_2004may27

Kerry Vows to Rebuild Alliances, Confront Terrorism

Thu May 27,11:13 PM ET
By Jim VandeHei, Washington Post Staff Writer

SEATTLE, May 27 -- Sen. John F. Kerry accused President Bush on Thursday of undermining generations of U.S. leadership and pledged that as president he would restore the United States' alliances and aggressively confront potential terrorist threats.

Kerry, who said Bush's policies have made the United States less safe, sought to balance a bellicose tone toward al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations with overtures toward allies and global institutions such as the United Nations (news - web sites). "As commander in chief, I will bring the full force of our nation's power to bear on finding and crushing networks," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech here. "We will use every resource of our power to destroy."


Speaking to graduate students and war veterans, including several of his Vietnam War crewmates, Kerry turned the words of Republican Theodore Roosevelt, a Bush hero, into an indictment of what he called Bush's "unilateral" foreign policy. "Time and time again, this administration has violated the fundamental tenet of Roosevelt's approach, as he described it -- 'If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble,' " Kerry said.


Kerry offered no new policy proposals, but provided a more detailed explanation of his worldview and foreign policy priorities. He criticized Bush for failing to kill or capture Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) during the battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan (news - web sites), for taking a "kid glove approach" to hunting down terrorist money and for coddling Saudi Arabia. "To put it simply, we will not do business as usual with Saudi Arabia," Kerry said. "They must take concrete steps to stop their clerics from fueling the fires of Islamic extremism." <snip>