Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry and his newly named running mate John Edwards on Sunday accused President George W. Bush of misleading America and abusing power in taking the nation to war in Iraq.
In a series of interviews capping a week of publicity around the naming of Edwards as the vice presidential nominee, the two seized on typically Republican rhetoric about American values, accusing Bush of lying to the nation.
"The value of truth is one of the most central values in America, and this administration has violated" it, Kerry told The Washington Post. "Their values system is distorted and not based on truth."
"How you feel about Iraq is a reflection of your values about how you go to war, about what's worth fighting for, about whether you were told the truth about what's involved. There's a value system that believes that America ought to work with other countries and put our best foot forward," he said.
Edwards questioned the sincerity of Bush's rhetoric on values.
"George Bush and others can say whatever they want now about what their values are, but what have they spent their life doing? Have they shown in their life experience, not just in the time they've been in politics, but in their life experience, that they have the values that Americans looked up to and respected?" Edwards said.
The two were armed with a Senate report released Friday, which said the US intelligence community "mischaracterized" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war through "a series of failures," and its key judgements were either overstated or not backed up.
Kerry drew a direct link to Bush's public remarks about ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons programs and his supposed links to al-Qaeda.
"He certainly misled America about nuclear involvement," Kerry told The New York Times of Bush's claims that Saddam was on course to develop a nuclear weapon.
"And he misled America about the types of weapons that were there, and he misled America about how he would go about using the authority he was given," Kerry said.
Moreover, Bush had no plan for winning the peace, Kerry said. He insisted the administration had discarded professional military evaluations and turned its backs on the State Department's efforts.