www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0317.html
Instead we must return more effectively to the international community, and share the authority and the burdens with other nations. We need to use the tools of diplomacy as well as the tools of war. But if we had built a true coalition, they would not have to fight almost alone - and Americans would not have to bear almost all the costs in Iraq. This President is so committed to tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that he refused to ask them to sacrifice even a small portion of that tax cut to give our soldiers the weapons and equipment they need. The lesson here is fundamental: At times, conflict comes, and the decision must be made. For a President, the decision may be lonely, but that does not mean that America should go it alone. And while we should seek allies, we must never give anyone else a veto over our national security. At this decisive time in our history, when we confront ongoing challenges in Afghanistan as well as Iraq - and the mortal challenge of those that would use terror as a weapon and religion as a shield, there is no greater imperative for a President than the Constitutions command to provide for the common defense. If I am President of the United States, we will do whatever it takes to ensure that the 21st century American military is the strongest in the world. I will not hesitate to use force when it is needed to wage and win the War on Terror. At the heart of that force must be a fully prepared, fully equipped, fully staffed, state-of-the-art military ready to face any adversary, anywhere. Four years ago, George Bush said that our troops lacked the support they needed. He sent that message to the same military that had been built up in the 1990s and was soon to perform so brilliantly in Afghanistan and Iraq. He cant decry the militarys readiness in 2000 and then take credit for its success in 2001, before he even passed his first defense budget. Now, in 2004, our armed forces are more extended than at any time in a generation - and at this time, they are still waiting for help. Helicopter pilots have flown battlefield missions without the best available anti-missile systems. Civil Affairs personnel, almost all of them reservists, are stretched to the breaking point, building schools and hospitals. The 428th Transportation Company had to ask local businesses back home to donate the steel to armor their vehicles, and when this President heard about it, instead of saying, never again, he said, good idea. And tens of thousands of troops were deployed to Iraq without the most advanced bullet proof vests that can literally make the difference between life and death. Lives and blood will always be the cost of war, but we should never send young Americans into harms way more exposed to danger than they have to be.
So I come here today to propose a Military Family Bill of Rights - real and specific guarantees - that will keep faith with those who served and the families who share in their sacrifice. Our military families have the right to expect real leadership of the armed forces from the Commander-in-Chief. They have a right to competitive pay and quality housing, decent health care and dental care. And they have a right to know that, in the event of tragedy, help will be there to care and provide for their families and for them. America needs a President who will do all that it takes to create the most modern fighting force on earth. When the 4th Infantry Division found Saddam Hussein, they had an unmatched wealth of knowledge about their surroundings and they were connected in an unprecedented way to their commanders. Theyre known as the digital division, transformed in the Clinton Administration, when the decision was made to outfit the 4th Division with the latest advances in information technology. Their vehicles in the field have keyboards and touch screen monitors so that troops can access real time maps, track battlefield movements, and even send commands by e-mail. Our enemies dont use the old tactics and -strategies - neither should we. Our emphasis has do be on empowering soldiers to fight more precisely, on reducing the incidents of friendly-fire and on building a military fit for the future, not the past. When we took on the Taliban, precision bombs onboard planes flying from aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean were guided to their targets by United States Special Forces riding horses across the hills of Afghanistan. They could do that because of what we did to strengthen the military in the last decade, but there is so much more to do. By pushing real-time information, and the ability to take action, into the hands of those closest to the frontlines, we can prepare ourselves for the perils and possibilities of the years ahead. The war in Iraq taught us that a lightning-fast information-age military can drive to Baghdad in three weeks, but the instability that follows requires a large force - and we cannot rely on reservists alone to make up the difference. I propose to add 40,000 troops to the regular Army, not to send to Iraq, but to ease the burden on troops who have been deployed from one global hot spot to the next with no end in sight.
We are weaker today militarily than we should be, but this Administration stubbornly refuses to admit it. Soldiers in Iraq are paying the price everyday because our forces are spread too thin. There simply arent enough of them to provide a prudent reserve of active-duty troops to respond if they have to in other hotspots. More than 180,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves are on active duty. Stop-loss programs have kept more than 30,000 troops in the ranks after their enlistments expired. If I am President, I will instruct my Secretary of Defense to conduct a long-range review of the nations military force structure. And until that review is completed, I will not appoint a Base Closure Commission. We should not begin that work until we are clear that we are not wasting resources on excess bases, and until we know what our future needs will be at home and around the world. And as we expand the size of the active-duty Army, we must also recognize that more numbers alone are not enough. The threats of terrorism and the conflicts of the future can only be met with more engineers, more military police, more psychological warfare personnel and civil affairs teams - more special operations forces and more training for peace keeping missions. We need a force that is as well prepared, well-trained, and well-equipped to stabilize a failed state as it is to wage war in an open desert or on urban streets. Americas strength is not found in our military alone, but in every area of American life. In small towns and cities across this country, there are judges, public administrators, educators, economists, civil engineers, and public safety professionals. They represent a vast untapped reserve of citizens capable - and I believe willing - to make their contribution to national security. It is time to marshal their skills and experience in service to America.
America entered into a covenant with those it drafted and those who enlisted, but the truth is that, with every story of a veteran who goes without adequate health care every day, that covenant is broken. There are countless veterans who fought our wars who are now fighting year after year for the benefits they earned. Last year they had to defeat a Bush Administration proposal to increase fees and co-payments, which was nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt drive an additional one million veterans from the VA health care system. The President then came back with a plan to drive 500,000 from the system by 2005. If I am President, as part of a Military Families Bill of Rights, we will fully fund veterans health and veterans benefits - and our veterans will no longer be the neglected soldiers of America. And we have to secure the rights not only of those who served in the past, but of patriots all across this country who serve today - in the active duty military, the Reserves, or the National Guard. Twenty-percent of our Reservists and their families dont have health care coverage. But George Bush threatened t...
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