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Freeing Up Resources to Win the War on Terror

by Mass. Dem. Sen. John Kerry - 09/18/06 2:02 PM ET

Tomorrow is the five year anniversary of our military intervention in Afghanistan. That was the right war in the right place at the right time.

It’s the place where we should’ve captured or killed Osama bin Laden.

Now President Bush says it’s an urban myth that his Administration has lost focus on Osama bin Laden, but the real myth is that Iraq, not Afghanistan, is the center of the War on Terror.

President Bush lost focus on Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora when he held back our military and outsourced the job of killing this barbarian to Afghan warlords.

Where are we today? At a place where America urgently needs a new security strategy to make our country more secure.
There are five principal priorities that demand immediate action: (1) redeploy from Iraq, (2) re-commit to Afghanistan, (3) reduce our dependence on foreign oil, (4) reinforce our homeland defense, and (5) restore America’s moral leadership in the world. These “5 R’s