Fresh from five more wins in the Democratic presidential race, United States Senator John Kerry fired off a fierce attack on President George Bush on Tuesday, accusing him of misleading Americans over the Iraq war.
Kerry, the frontrunner in the race to take on Bush for the White House in November, charged the administration with concocting a string of untruths on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programmes in the run-up to war.
”They obviously misused information and misled the American people,” said Kerry in an interview on MSNBC television.
”The administration itself promised us they would build an international coalition, that they would honor the United Nations inspections and they would go to war as a last resort.
”They did none of those things, I intend to hold the president accountable for that in the course of this race.”
Kerry’s campaign for the Democratic nod picked up speed on Tuesday as he bagged five states, Missouri, Delaware, North Dakota, Arizona and New Mexico, to add to his victories last month in New Hampshire and Iowa.
His main rival, Senator John Edwards, picked up his native South Carolina, while former Nato commander Wesley Clark snatched his first win of the campaign in Oklahoma, according to television network projections.
Kerry’s Democratic rivals have probed him for weakness over Iraq, as he voted in the Senate to give the president the authority to go to war.
But Kerry, who is touting his Vietnam War heroism to burnish his national security credentials, has hit back that Bush broke promises on building international support before going to war.
He said his showing on Tuesday reflected a ”very significant desire across the country from one coast to the other, from north to south, for change in our country.
”People want new leadership,” Kerry said on CNN.
”I am very, very gratified by the returns thus far.”
Hundreds of jubilant Kerry supporters and campaign staff partied in a hotel ballroom in downtown Seattle, where the veteran Massachusetts lawmaker was already campaigning for a primary election in Washington state on Saturday.
”This is our night,” said Kerry’s campaign director, Alixandria Wade, adding that the senator was ”very happy”.
”He’s a winner,” said local campaign worker Johanna Trobough.
Other delighted supporters buoyed by Kerry’s victories, such as at the Iowa caucus last month and in the New Hampshire primary, included 25-year-old Dieter Bruning, crippled by the effects of the Vietnam War-era defoliant Agent Orange.
”Kerry’s been my hero all my life,” said the son of a Vietnam War veteran who was exposed to Agent Orange, which was used to clear enemy-inhabited jungles but had devastating effects on the children of some of those exposed to it.
”I’m just here because I want to see him,” he said of Kerry, who campaigned for official compensation for Agent Orange victims.
Seattle law student Robert Kirscher summed up the hopes of many of Kerry’s fans following his latest leap forward in the contest for the White House that will go to the wire in November.
”We will win this,” Kirscher said, clutching a cold celebration beer in both hands. — Sapa-AFP