Massachusetts Senator John Kerry says rival Howard Dean has a “fundamental misunderstanding” of foreign policy. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has been a frequent critic of the war in Iraq, and Kerry is attacking Dean for being “all over the map” on Iraq, citing times when Dean indicated intervention in Iraq was necessary, while most of the time opposing U.S. action in Iraq. Dean recently declared that Saddam Hussein’s capture does not make the U-S safer because Iraq isn’t at the center of the war on terror, al Qaeda is. Kerry says Saddam Hussein repeatedly endangered the peace of the world and no one should doubt that we are safer because he’s behind bars. Kerry says “people are listening carefully now and it’s an important time to draw these distinctions.” Kerry delivered a “foreign policy address” at Drake University in Des Moines, and warned that Dean “doesn’t have the judgment to be President.” Kerry says America confronts a “dual danger” — President Bush on one side and Dean on the other. Kerry says Dean would take the U-S down a “path of confusion and retreat.” Kerry says when America needed leadership on Iraq, Dean was “all over the lot, with a lot of slogans and a lot less solutions. Kerry, who’s the son of an American diplomat, is a Massachusetts Senator. A spokeswoman for Governor Dean says while Dean is focusing on what he’d do as president, the “Washington candidates” like Kerry have “done nothing but attack” Dean. The Dean camp also says “Iowans know better than anyone Governor Dean’s opposition to the war in Iraq has been steadfast from the beginning and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous.”
