Kerry ‘will weaken US and put world at risk’

US PRESIDENT George W Bush, in biting criticism of his Democratic challenger, said yesterday that John Kerry has “a strategy of retreat” for Iraq and an economic programme that would imperil America at home.

Mr Bush addressed hundreds of applauding supporters on his 38th trip to the swing state of Pennsylvania as he worked to overcome last week’s shaky debate performance and new controversy over the White House’s handling of the war in Iraq.

The president said: “My opponent’s endless back-and-forth on Iraq is part of a larger misunderstanding. In the war on terror, Senator Kerry is proposing policies and doctrines that would weaken America and make the world more dangerous”.

Regarding the battle against terrorists, Mr Bush said: “Senator Kerry approaches the war with a September the 10th mindset ... that any attack will be met with a swift and certain response. That was the mindset of the 1990s, while al-Qaida was planning the attacks on America.

“After September the 11th, our object in the war on terror is not to wait for the next attack and respond but to prevent attacks by taking the fight to the enemy.”

On the economy, Mr Bush said: “My opponent is a tax-and-spend liberal. I’m a compassionate conservative. The senator is proposing higher taxes on more than 900,000 small business owners.

“My opponent is one of the few candidates in history to campaign on a pledge to raise taxes. And that’s the kind of promise a politician from Massachusetts usually keeps.”

Two days before the second presidential debate, Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said Mr Bush was trying to put a new face on the last one.

“The president tried to redo the debate from last week by giving a speech full of untruths he couldn’t say on stage with John Kerry because he knew Kerry would knock them down,” Mr Singer said. “George Bush needs to get real with the American people and start telling the truth.”

One of the Bush campaign’s aims in the Pennsylvania speech was to blunt a new weapons report, , released last night that undercuts Mr Bush’s rationale for going to war - that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that posed a threat not only to Iraq’s immediate neighbours but to the US as well.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the report would show “Saddam Hussein was a threat we needed to take seriously” who retained the “intent and capability to produce weapons of mass destruction”.

In the first presidential debate, Mr Bush’s scowling and annoyed appearance was widely panned, prompting Mr Bush’s campaign to substitute yesterday’s speech, originally planned to focus on medical liability reform.

Mr Bush made light of his grimaces, saying Mr Kerry changes positions so often “you can understand why somebody would make a face”.

The president lost Pennsylvania to Democrat Al Gore by fewer than 5,000 votes in 2000, and he is working hard to deny Mr Kerry a victory there. Mr Kerry has visited the state 15 times this year.

In the final month of campaigning before the November 2 election, both candidates are hitting a new level of harsh rhetoric.

When Mr Bush said this week that Mr Kerry’s foreign policy stands “are dangerous for world peace” - a contention he repeated in Pennsylvania - Mr Kerry countered that Mr Bush was resorting to a “blanket scare tactic”.

Political analysts see alarm bells ringing inside the Bush re-election effort.

When a campaign “makes changes like this they’re worried about something and they have a lot to worry about right now”, said David Rohde, who teaches political science at Michigan State University. “Bush had the chance to put the race away in the last debate. That didn’t happen,” he said.