Edwards Statement On Bush Comments On "Global War On Terror"

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Senator John Edwards released the following statement today about the latest comments made by President Bush.

"There's a word for doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. George Bush has made America less safe and less respected in the world. And the Republican presidential candidates, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, are competing to see who can be the bigger, badder George Bush. Is that really what America wants? When I'm president of the United States, I will make America more safe.

As I said yesterday, the core of the Bush presidency is a political doctrine they call the Global War on Terror. They use it to justify all the worst abuses of this administration – from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo to the assault on civil liberties to the war in Iraq. The one thing it doesn't do is the one thing it's supposed to do - by the Administration's own admission, the threat of terrorism is up, not down.

Let's be crystal clear – the president of the United States has an absolute responsibility to stop terrorists wherever they are, with whatever it takes.

But that's not what the Bush terror doctrine does. The Bush terror doctrine says we're going to pursue our ideological agenda without regard to whether it works and without regard to the will of the American people. And if you oppose us, if you challenge us, if you disagree with us, you're soft on terror, you're not a patriot.

It's a political sledgehammer plain and simple. And the most insidious part about it is that it does not work.

Abu Ghraib has not made us safer.

Wiretapping Americans has not made us safer.

The war in Iraq has not made us safer.

We don't need a political sledgehammer; we need a comprehensive strategy to protect America from 21st century threats. We need to build a strong mission-focused military and restore our moral leadership around the world. That's the vision I laid out yesterday."