Kerry accuses Bush over Iraq

Democratic challenger John Kerry accused President George W. Bush of planning to call up large numbers of reservists for Iraq after the November election, but a new poll released Saturday indicated Kerry's new aggressive line is not working with voters.
Kerry's claim that the White House has a secret callup plan stirred up the presidential election campaign. But Bush had a nine-point lead in a CBS/New York Times poll released Saturday.
The Democratic candidate for the White House has virulently attacked Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney since the Republican convention, which saw the Bush-Cheney team take the advantage in public ratings. While the two parties say the election race is still tight, Kerry has condemned the president over his own military service and his handling of Iraq and the economy. He has also hit out at Cheney over his links to Halliburton, the controversial oil and general services giant which is in trouble over military contracts in Iraq.
In his latest assault, Kerry said the president has a secret plan to call up large numbers of reservists for Iraq duty, which he said will be announced only after the November 2 election.
"He won't tell us that day by day we're running out of soldiers and that we're now resorting to a backdoor draft from our reservists and our National Guard," the Massachusetts senator said during a campaign stop in Albuquerque on Friday.
"He won't tell us what congressional leaders are saying - that this administration is planning another substantial call-up of reservists and guard units immediately after the election," he said.
Representative John Murtha, a Democratic member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he had learned from Pentagon officials of plans to call up large numbers of military guards and reserves, including members of the rarely activated "individual ready reserves." Kerry also accused Cheney of "cronyism" over Halliburton, which has reaped billions of dollars of business in Iraq.
Kerry said in a statement and a campaign advert that Cheney has received almost two million dollars from the company since leaving in 2000 to join the Bush campaign. Bush officials acknowledged that Cheney had received deferred compensation from Halliburton but disputed the two-million-dollar figure. Spokesman Reed Dickens called the Democratic allegations "a tired, old, recycled attack."
Two polls published Thursday had shown Kerry pulling even with Bush, but a third gave the Republican a healthy 13-point margin. The CBS/New York Times poll said Bush's lead had widened from seven to nine points in the past week.