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Prisoner scandal colors election fight
By DAVID ESPO AP SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- The abuse of Iraqi prisoners is the latest flashpoint in a political campaign full of them, with President Bush and Republicans rallying around Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld while Sen. John Kerry and Democrats depict the episode as evidence of a misguided postwar policy.
Rumsfeld "is doing a superb job," Bush said Monday in a visit to the Pentagon, the commander in chief speaking against a backdrop of streamers from military battles past. The Defense secretary is "courageously leading our nation in the war against terror," he added.
That's not how Kerry saw it as the prisoner abuse controversy flared last week. "The chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office," said Bush's Democratic challenger, responding to Rumsfeld's statement that he took full responsibility.
Later, Kerry said the furor was the latest manifestation of a policy blunder by the administration. "Rumsfeld and company made huge miscalculations about what it would take and the numbers of killings and what was involved, even though many of us were saying at the time that it's not winning the war that's difficult, it's winning the peace," he said.
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Given the stakes in the presidential race, surrogates swiftly joined the debate.
"The issues at stake here go to the very heart of the American mission in Iraq," said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, tapped to deliver the Democratic response to Bush's weekly radio address. "... This is a mission in trouble," he added.
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Source: AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer 5/10/04
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