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WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a fact sheet from Kerry-Edwards 2004:
"Despite this administration's near obsession with missile defense, the greatest threat facing our homeland comes from terrorists who would do us harm. In the months preceding 9/11 George W. Bush and his closest advisors were preoccupied with missile defense and their misunderstanding about the threats we face continues to this day. John Kerry believes an effective missile defense is crucial to our national security strategy. But John Kerry also understands the importance of facing our most pressing national security threats while continuing to develop and deploy a national missile defense which we know will work," said Kerry National Security Adviser Rand Beers.
WHO DOESN'T "UNDERSTAND THE THREATS OF THE 21st CENTURY"?
May 2001 -- Bush Said "Most Urgent Threat" Was Ballistic Missiles.
Bush: "Most troubling of all, the list of these countries includes some of the World's least responsible states. Unlike the Cold War, today's most urgent threat stems not from thousands of ballistic missiles in the Soviet hands, but from a small number of missiles in the hands of these states, states for whom terror and blackmail are a way of life. They seek weapons of mass destruction to intimidate their neighbors, and to keep the United States and other responsible nations from helping allies and friends in strategic parts of the world." (Bush, Address at the National Defense University, 5/1/01)
May 2001 - Kerry Said "Immediate Threat" was From Terrorists and "Non-State Actors."
Kerry: "But let me underscore that missile defense will do nothing to address what the Pentagon itself considers a much more likely and immediate threat to the American homeland from terrorists and from nonstate actors, who can quietly slip explosives into a building, unleash chemical weapons into a crowded subway, or send a crude nuclear weapon into a busy harbor." (Kerry, Speech on Senate Floor, 5/2/01)
Before 9-11, Bush Administration Didn't Focus on Terrorist Threat, Highlighted Missile Defense
Bush's Pre-9/11 Focus on Missile Defense Over Terrorism is Widely Recognized. A Washington Post editorial noted that "By now it's common knowledge that before Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration's attention was focused not on terrorism but on other national security priorities -- most notably missile defense." (Washington Post, 4/26/04)
Rumsfeld Threatened Veto Of Plan To Divert Money From Missile Defense to Terroirsm. On September 9, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld threatened to urge a presidential veto of a Senate plan to divert $600 million from missile defense systems to counterterrorism. Instead of anti-terror planning, "the whole Bush national- security team was obsessed with setting up a national system of missile defense." (Time, 8/12/02)
More like this, please.