US President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry engaged in a debate on Thursday about the CIA’s weapons inspector’s report, with Bush arguing that it demonstrated he was ‘‘right to take action’’ in Iraq despite the CIA’s findings.Both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney focused on sections of the report saying that Saddam had wanted to reconstitute his weapons programs at some point and that he had found his way around economic sanctions. Bush said of Saddam: ‘‘He retained the knowledge, materials, means and intent to produce WMDs.’’ Adding, ‘‘and he could have passed that knowledge on to our terrorist enemies.’’ Kerry shot back saying that Bush and Cheney ‘‘may be the last two people who won’t face the truth about Iraq.’’ The exchanges paved way for the second presidential debate on Friday night, but perhaps more important, they underscored how the two candidates have staked their electoral fates on Iraq. The president quoted from a statement Kerry made at the Senate warning of the danger that Saddam may spread. After reading from Kerry’s statement, Bush asked the crowd: ‘‘Just who is trying to mislead the American people?’’ Kerry’s campaign said Bush had taken the words out of context and noted that in the same speech, Kerry had said: ‘‘Regime change in and of itself is not sufficient justification for going to war, unless regime change is the only way to disarm Iraq of the WMDs.’’ —(NYT)
