Divergent Views on Iraq and North Korea Exposed in Presidential Debate

The debate between President Bush and Senator John Kerry on Thursday night highlighted the starkly different views they hold on the question of when diplomacy has been exhausted, and how to focus the resources of a superpower that cannot deploy its armies on every potential battlefield. The two men crystallized an argument that has been bubbling along for months now, an argument over whether toppling Saddam Hussein was the right course or the wrong one for a nation suddenly confronted with a set of threats that were never aired during the last presidential campaign.

Key Takeaways:

• President Bush and Senator Kerry have fundamentally different views on whether the invasion of Iraq was justified, with Bush believing that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States, and Kerry arguing that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were the true enemies.
• Kerry accused Bush of strengthening Al Qaeda with the war in Iraq, which he said was a "diversion" in the broader war on terrorism.
• The two men also disagreed on the approach to disarming North Korea, with Kerry favoring bilateral talks and Bush opposing them.
• Kerry argued that Bush's policies not to seek greater allied support for the war in Iraq left the United States carrying an unnecessarily large share of the burden, with 90% of the casualties being American.
• The Pentagon reports that new Iraqi security forces have suffered over 700 deaths, while the United States has lost just over 1,000 military personnel killed during the mission.
• Bush asserted that 100,000 Iraqi troops, police, border guards, and other security forces had been trained and that the figure would hit 125,000 by the end of the year, although the State Department's Iraq weekly status report lists the total at 90,826.
• Kerry used a blitz of facts and figures to argue that the process of turning Iraq over to the Iraqis should have been speedier.

Statistics:

• The Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office put the cost of the war at $119 billion through the 2004 fiscal year, which ended Thursday.
• The war has cost American taxpayers $119 billion, with an estimated final cost of $200 billion.
• The Pentagon reports that new Iraqi security forces have suffered over 700 deaths.
• The United States has lost just over 1,000 military personnel killed during the mission.

Sources:

• The New York Times article "Bush and Kerry Debate Iraq War Record" (no date provided)
• CNN transcript of the presidential debate (October 13, 2004)
• Washington Post article "Kerry Says Bush Misjudged Saddam Threat" (October 13, 2004)
• Reuters article "Bush Says Iraq War Not Diversion, Kerry Disagrees" (October 13, 2004)
• Pentagon statistics on Iraqi security forces deaths (no date provided)
• State Department's Iraq weekly status report (September 15, 2004)