Kerry draws US Republican fire for Iraq comment

WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry drew election-year fire from President George W Bush and other Republicans for saying college students could ''get stuck in Iraq'' if they do not study hard.

But Kerry, who unsuccessfully challenged Bush in the 2004 presidential election, yesterday refused to apologize and said his remark was a ''botched joke'' aimed at the president, not U S troops.

With the Iraq war a dominant issue in the November 7 elections, Kerry's comment on Monday gave Republicans, struggling to maintain control of the U.S. Congress, a chance to fight back.

Kerry's office said later the Massachusetts Democrat had misread his prepared remarks that included the words ''Just ask President Bush,'' which he omitted.

Kerry, who was criticized for mishandling national security issues during his losing White House campaign, angrily accused Republicans who have never been in war of making unfounded attacks.

''I make apologies to no one about my criticism of the president and his broken policy,'' Kerry said in a statement. ''This This pathetic attempt to distort a botched joke about President Bush is a shameful effort to distract from a botched war.'' The Massachusetts Democrat, combative at a news conference in Seattle insisted: ''The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and (Vice President) Dick Cheney who misled America into war.'' While campaigning in California, Kerry told a college crowd on Monday: ''You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.'' Bush quickly seized on the controversy, demanding that Kerry apologize.

''The senator's suggestion that the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and it is shameful,'' Bush said at a campaign rally in Georgia where the crowd booed at Kerry's quote.

''The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology,'' Bush said.

Paul Morin, national commander of the 2.7 million-member American Legion, the nation's biggest veterans' organization, expressed outrage.

U S Senate candidate Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said he was sorry about Kerry's choice of words but that the issue is the war in Iraq.

''I think what the Republicans are going to try to do is use this as a distraction. But the voters are smarter than that. They know things are not going well. And they know the president does not have a plan to get us out of Iraq,'' Cardin said on CNN.

SERVICE RECORDS Kerry served in the Navy in the Vietnam War. Bush was a member of the Texas Air National Guard during that war, spending his time in the United States. Cheney avoided Vietnam with student deferments.

If the White House misconstrued Kerry's comments, apparently so did others, including Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and a fellow Vietnam vet who has had an amicable relationship with Kerry.

McCain said Kerry ''owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education.'' Other Republican lawmakers and conservative talk-show hosts made similar calls as both parties jockeyed for position in next week's elections.

White House spokesman Tony Snow had called the comments ''an absolute insult,'' to which Kerry responded: ''I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium or doughy (talk-show host) Rush Limbaugh.'' ''If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq -- and not the president who got us stuck there -- they're crazy,'' he added.

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