Kerry policy on Iraq

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The Kerry policy on Iraq was a major issue during the 2004 US presidential election.

In a lengthy Senate speech, John Kerry detailed his reasons for voting to authorize the president to go to war with Iraq.^[1] In this speech, he gave only conditional support for an invasion.

In the first of the 2004 U.S. presidential election debates, Kerry argued that Saddam Hussein had posed a significant potential threat, but that President Bush was premature in going to war. Kerry stated that war should have been a last resort, after diplomatic pressure and efforts by United Nations weapons inspectors had been allowed to run their course.

According to the Associated Press, Kerry made the war in Iraq the main issue of his 2004 presidential campaign.^{[citation needed]}

Kerry and George W. Bush sparred repeatedly over Kerry's expression of his policy. Kerry maintained that he has "one Iraq policy", while Bush claimed that Kerry has made major changes in his policy. The Bush campaign says that differences between one Kerry policy statement and another amount to "flip-flops", and a conservative talk show host on WABC radio frequently played a sound clip from the old "Flipper" TV theme song.

The nonpartisan FactCheck stated that "Kerry has never wavered from his support for giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq, nor has he changed his position that he, as President, would not have gone to war without greater international support."^[2]