I am even seeing people here repeat the same mistake Kerry made during the debate.
Kerry saw the same FAKED intel that Bush claimed. Our REAL intel gave a message that did not go as far as Bush needed to start the war, so they created a new civilian staffed group in the pentagon to rewrite it.
Those documents where the ones sent to congress, the UN and floated in the white paper.
Kerry, and congress never saw the real intelligence data, gathered by the real intelligence experts.
So when he says he based his decisions about Iraq on the same data the president had, he is technically correct, that may even be the only data to cross shrub's desk, but the real data was available to the Whitehouse, but NOT to congress or the public.
Kerry's people need to start stressing that point. Kerry saw the FABRICATED data, and made his decisions based on lies from people he should have been able to trust to tell him the truth, so he RIGHTLY assumed at the time it was a true assessment. However, we mow all KNOW it was fabricated. (In all honesty, some of us that had been paying attention at the time knew, but EVERYBODY'S hands are dirty on that score.) The CIA did not push back, the pentagon looked the other way, IF IT WAS FLOATING THROUGH THE PRESS, why did the Senate defense intelligence committee not know that there a non intel group had re-collated the data, and that there were severe questions about it as early as summer 02'?
Back to my point. The truth is Kerry reacted to FABRICATED INTEL, passed as real. The moment he became aware that it was a LIE, OF COURSE HIS POSITION CHANGED. he is not worthy of being a US Senator, let alone PRESIDENT OF THE US (see chimpy and his stubborn refusal to let FACTS get in the way of a good war) if he cannot grasp that decisions based on data that was deliberately faked are probably wrong.
Mr Tek