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CNN Live Today

Najaf Deal; Kerry Addresses VFW Convention

Aired August 18, 2004 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're hitting it on the dot today, 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
We have breaking news this hour from Iraq. A sudden turnabout in Najaf. There is word now of a peace deal with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Let's get the latest now. Our John Vause standing by in Baghdad -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Daryn.

Word that al-Sadr had agreed to the negotiations, to the demands put to him by that peace delegation came about 20 minutes ago. It was read out to the delegates on the floor. It came in the form of a letter from al-Sadr's Baghdad office. When news spread of the letter, when they read it out, there were cheers from the delegates there, as they heard that al-Sadr agreed to the three demand the delegation had put to his aides last night in Najaf.

Those demands being that he and his Mehdi militia leave the Imam Ali Mosque. The other one, that he dissolve his Mehdi militia. And the third one, that he join the political process.

Still very, very early days. There's still a lot of undecideds here.

What sort of time frame are we talking? Who will, in fact, decide when the Mehdi militia has been dissolved? There's still a few things which can go wrong, but it's certainly looking very positive on the surface of all of this -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Couple questions for you, John. First of all, this really just came -- excuse me -- came down to the breaking point in terms of the interim government threatening to literally storm this mosque.

VAUSE: That's right, Daryn. We'd heard a number of statements from the interim Iraqi government, from the defense minister, saying time for talking was over. Military preparations were ready to liberate the mosque.

We heard from the interim Iraqi prime minister, saying that he would not stand back, arms folded. He would restore law and order to Najaf. We've seen an ongoing operation in Najaf, 2,000 U.S. Marines, more than 1,000 Iraqi forces within 500 yards of the Imam Ali Mosque, literally poised at the gate, waiting on that command to go into that mosque to liberate it, in the words of the Iraqi defense minister, to rid it, in the words of the prime minister, of the Mehdi militia.

So this really did come right down to a breaking point. So whether al-Sadr has buckled under that pressure, both the political pressure which he's getting from the Iraqi conference, which is being held here in Baghdad right now, combined with the military pressure, both those factors obviously playing into this.

But as we say this, is still very early days. We have yet to hear from al-Sadr himself. This was in the form of a letter. It will be interesting to see if al-Sadr has anything to say in the coming hours and whether or not he confirms everything which was put in that letter -- Daryn.

KAGAN: John Vause -- John Vause in Baghdad. We'll have more with you ahead.

Right now, we want to go live to Cincinnati. Senator John Kerry is speaking there. He's just beginning to speak. And as he's going through his thank-yous and saying hello, let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, and get a little bit of thoughts about what we're going to hear here, and just even thoughts on the veteran vote and which way it's leaning -- Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Mr. Kerry is speaking to the same group that President Bush spoke to the other day when President Bush made his dramatic announcement that some 70,000 American forces would be brought home from the places mostly in East Asia and Europe, where they've been deployed really since World War II. Most of them in South Korea and Japan in Asia, and in Germany, in Europe.

He's likely to criticize that plan, saying that it just epitomizes what he calls President Bush's "go it alone" international policy, which puts everything at stake for the United States and Iraq, and seems to abandon, he says, the interests of traditional American allies.

KAGAN: All right, Bill. Let's go ahead and listen in to Senator Kerry. We'll talk after the speech.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me offer this pledge.

As president, I will always remember that America's security begins and ends with the soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Guardsman, Coast Guardsman, with every man and every woman in our armed services who has ever stood guard at the gates of freedom. Today, I salute each and every one of you for your commitment, your strength and your extraordinary courage. America says thank you and we all join today in a special salute to the greatest generation veterans whose memorial finally stands proudly in a place of honor on the Mall in Washington.

Thank you for your extraordinary example as citizen soldiers.

(APPLAUSE) I also want to just say a word briefly, if I may, to those who are currently risking their lives in places as far away as Iraq and Afghanistan and other places. America's prayers are with you. We honor your service. We thank you for your sacrifice. And we pledge to stand with you and with your families as you stand for ours.

(APPLAUSE)

Like veterans of all wars past, today's fighting men and women deserve our prayers and support, and then when they come home, they deserve the respect and welcome of a grateful nation.

After all, the first definition of patriotism in my judgment, beyond service to country, is keeping faith with those who have worn the uniform of the United States of America.

And one of the best ways to do that is to make sure that those who have served us on the front lines return to an America that gives them the tools to build strong families and strong communities here at home. This means the transitional assistance to be able to help all of those returning from war struggling to adjust to civilian life and coping with the scars of battle, both those seen and unseen.

KERRY: This is about keeping a sacred promise. It's about love of country. And it is about protecting those who have risked their lives to protect ours.

Now, in recent days, you have heard from some who claimed that the job is getting done for veterans. Well, just saying that the job is getting done doesn't make it so.

My friends, let me tell you when the job will be getting done. The job will be done when 500,000 veterans are not excluded from the V.A. health care system.

(APPLAUSE)

The job will be done when we're not closing V.A. hospitals so that veterans have difficulty reaching the very care that they need. The job will be done when veterans are not asked for increasing co- payments, enrollment fees and other charges that shift the burden of care to other veterans and drive more than a million veterans out of the system.

(APPLAUSE)

The job will be done when 400,000 military retirees get real concurrent receipt.

(APPLAUSE)

The job will be done when there are no homeless veterans on the streets of America.

(APPLAUSE) The job will be done when more than 320,000 veterans no longer are waiting on decisions on disability and 100,000 are not awaiting appeals of those decisions.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: And the job will be done when the V.A.'s secretary does not have to complain publicly that he needs more than the White House wanted to give him.

And the job will be done when the family of a 21-year-old named Jay Brassino (ph), a veteran who faces a lifetime of disability, when that family doesn't have to sleep at his bedside because the V.A. can't afford to give him the round-the-clock nursing care that he needs and deserves.

(APPLAUSE)

It is clear that when it comes to protecting, when it comes to saying thank you, when it comes to living up to our obligation to honor those who wore the uniform, America's 26 million veterans and their families are far from being able to claim mission accomplished.

Let me make this clear.

For 35 years, I have stood up and fought and kept faith with my fellow veterans. As president, I will stand with you to complete that mission. The sacrifices that you've made on the battlefield are well known, but what is not as well known is the long battle of these 35 years.

I can remember when we came back from service in what we all know was a controversial period of time; I wish it hadn't been. I volunteered for my country. I volunteered to go to Vietnam. I volunteered for the duty that we had. I didn't make it controversial; the war and the times were.

And as too many of us know, it was a time when the war and the warriors became confused.

I say to you, with my experience, never again in America should the warriors ever be confused with the war. And our nation should always be prepared to stand and say thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: But here is what I know. Here is what I know in my heart and in my gut.

When I visited hospitals after I returned, I saw vets who weren't getting the care they needed, and we raised our voices and we fought hard and we got additional funding for those V.A. hospitals. We got hospital care for places that couldn't provide it.

I know how we reached out and we found the first medical assistance in the country to help veterans be able to adjust, who were having difficulties re-entering into life. We put together the first ever outreach groups to help deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, which has now become recognized across our V.A. system.

I know how we pushed to get the GI Bill extended so that veterans who had been lost, who kind of dropped out, who didn't quite know how to process it all, were able to still use their GI Bill and get the benefits that they had coming to them.

And I know how we won increases hard fought for veterans' allowances and for living expenses so veterans were able to go to school and open the doors of opportunity.

I stand here in front of you proud in my heart and in my gut that we kept faith together. It was veterans fighting for veterans, veterans standing up and speaking on behalf of veterans.

And together, with the help from the leadership of the VFW, we can be proud that we put in place the most thorough, the most extensive, the most exhaustive, the most expensive effort in all of human history to account for our missing, captured, or dead in all of the history of human warfare.

We made that happen. We veterans made that happen. We kept faith and we should be proud of keeping faith with our fellow servicemen and women.

(APPLAUSE)

I am especially proud that together with former Senator Bob Smith and Senator John McCain we led that fight and we won this fight. When I got involved in this issue, there were hundreds of individuals, hundreds of families in America, who didn't have answers about their loved ones. Their fates were unknown.

Today, thanks to our work together, and I particularly thank Larry Rivers, who was then your commander in chief, who worked so hard to help us make this happen, today that number has been reduced from hundreds to 35.

(APPLAUSE)

That means that families now have the peace of mind and the comfort of knowing that their loved ones are resting in peace, of knowing what happened.

KERRY: I went back to Vietnam to search for our POWs and our missing, because I believe, as I know you do, that our troops never leave anyone behind. That is the standard by which we live.

(APPLAUSE)

That is why I fought for the legislation that allowed veterans to be treated. I not only fought for it; I wrote it. I drafted it. Tom Daschle and I pushed it, and we got it passed.

And today, veterans are treated in hospitals for devastating agent orange conditions like cancer and neurological disorders. Again, we kept faith and we provided help, as we have with the Gulf War syndrome and others.

And I will continue to stand with you as president, leading the fight for a military family bill of rights and leading the fight for full mandatory funding for veterans health care, which is what we need to keep faith in this country.

(APPLAUSE)

As many of you know, some of you may be those parents. A lot of military families are going through difficult times these days. Many of their loved ones are in faraway places, leaving the families at home to care for the entire family.

As many people also know, guardsmen and reserves who are called up are often going down in their pay from what they got on the civilian side when they go into the military. So families are left behind struggling to keep up with the mortgage, or the tuition payments and other things. I believe we ought to be helping those folks.

The last thing our servicemen and women need on their minds is the stress of wondering if their loved ones back home are going to be OK and can pay the bills. And what they need, in my judgment, is a president who protects their families while they are putting their lives on the line for the American family.

That means making sure that families have competitive pay, good housing, decent health care and quality education for their children. And keeping faith with our veterans also means making sure they get full concurrent receipt.

(APPLAUSE)

Today, we've only partially met this obligation. And I'm not going to come to the VFW to tell you the job is done when it isn't done.

If you earned a pension, it's yours. It belongs to you because you did what you were supposed to do according to the rules. You worked a lifetime. You worked up your pay grade. You earned that pension just like everybody else in the private sector.

KERRY: And if you get a disability payment, it's yours because you suffered.

And I'll tell you what: I don't believe that you subtract what you have suffered from what you have earned.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I won't stop fighting until our veterans get the full disability payments that they deserve.

(APPLAUSE) You and I, by virtue of our membership in this organization, once left our families and our shores to defend the principles that make America great, and we understand more than most the cost of keeping our country free.

When you hear that more than 940 American troops have been lost on the battlefield in Iraq and that more than 6,200 of our troops have been wounded, some disabled for a lifetime, these are more than numbers to each and every one of us here; these are our brothers and our sisters, our sons and our daughters, America's heroes.

They testify to the truth: That we will never back down in defense of freedom, not us, not the United States of America. We will use superior military force to overcome any enemy.

And let me be clear. Like you, I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

I will never hesitate, not for an instant, to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response. Any imminent threat to our security will be dealt with swiftly and severely.

I will never give any nation or any international institution a veto over our national security. And I will build a stronger military.

But in these dangerous times, there is a right way and a wrong way to be strong.

KERRY: Strength is more than tough words.

After September 11th, I'm proud that all of our people rallied to President Bush's call for unity to meet the danger. There were no Democrats. There were no Republicans. There were only Americans. And how we wish it had stayed that way.

(APPLAUSE)

But since then, you know it as well as I do, we've become a country divided over Iraq, and it didn't have to be that way.

As veterans, we know what kids go through when they're carrying an M-16 in a dangerous place and they can't tell the difference between friend and foe. We know what they go through when they're out on patrol at night and they don't know what's coming around the next bend. We know what it's like to write letters home and tell your family that everything's all right, even though you're not sure inside of you that it really is.

I know what we have to do in Iraq. We need a president who has the credibility to bring our allies to our side, because that's the right way to get the job done in Iraq and bring our troops home.

(APPLAUSE)

And for anyone who questions that, I just ask you to use your common sense. Use your power of thought as a free American.

Every Arab country has a stake in not having a failed Iraq, but they're not at the table. Every European country has a stake in not having a failed Iraq and not having a civil war, but they're not at the table.

I believe we can do a better job. I believe we can bring NATO and other nations to share the cost and the burdens.

KERRY: Right now, the United States of America, your taxpayer dollars, are shouldering the lion's share of this effort even though other people have a legitimate stake in fighting a war on terror.

Nearly 90 percent of all the coalition forces are Americans. And nearly 90 percent of coalition coffins are draped with the American flag.

The American taxpayers are paying the vast share of the cost of this war.

I believe we can do better. I believe we can massively improve and accelerate our training of Iraqi police and security forces so they can defend their own country.

And we need to ensure that there is far greater security to provide credible elections in 2005 to advance Iraq's transition to a stable and representative democracy.

As president, I will always ask the hard questions and I will demand hard evidence and I will tell the American people the truth. Some may not like it, but I'll tell them the truth. And I will immediately reform our intelligence system so that policy is guided by facts and facts are never distorted by politics.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I will wage war with the lessons that I learned in war. And some of those lessons run deep, folks -- what it means to have people without the equipment they need or jerry-rigging or, you know what I'm talking about, when the difficulties of the field confront the realities of the soldier.

Before you go to battle, before you go to battle, I believe you have to be able to look a parent or a family in the eye and you have to truthfully say to them, "We tried to do everything possible to avoid sending your son or daughter into harm's way, but we had no choice."

That, to me, is the test.

And now, with so much at stake in the struggle against Al Qaida, the American people want to hear in plain words the answer to a simple question: How are we going to get the terrorists before they get us? KERRY: Just what is our strategy, not just for striking back against the terrorists, but for defeating their aims, destroying their movement, discrediting their cause, and bringing old and new friends to our side?

What is our long-term strategy for making America safer?

Over the course of this campaign, I have laid out my plans to reshape and rebuild the American military so it is ready to fight tomorrow's wars, not yesterday's.

As a combat veteran who's walked in your shoes, I know that the first duty of a commander in chief is to make sure that our troops are the best trained, best equipped fighting force in the world, and to never send them into battle without a plan to win the peace. That is essential.

(APPLAUSE)

That is why I have called for adding 40,000 troops, new troops, not in Iraq -- let me emphasize, not in Iraq -- but to relieve the pressure on the overstretched armed forces of today.

The fact is that the war in Iraq has taken a real toll on our armed services. Ninety percent -- 90 percent -- of the Army's active duty combat divisions are either in Iraq, have been to Iraq and are recovering, or they're on their way.

I will also double the Army's special forces so that we can find and get the terrorists before they get us.

(APPLAUSE)

And we must end the stop loss and involuntary recall of troops that amounts to nothing more than a back door draft. Our reserves and guards are overextended. And to fight this war, we've called them up at historic levels -- many of these units being pushed to the limit.

The administration has extended tours of duty, delayed retirements, prevented enlisted personnel from leaving the service. And when these troops come home, many have lost the job that they left.

We're going to see to it that everyone who has fought for this country has a good job when they come back to the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

At the same time, I believe we need to strengthen homeland security, and we have to do everything we can to prevent another 9/11.

We shouldn't be letting 95 percent of our container ships come into our ports without ever being physically inspected. We shouldn't be leaving nuclear and chemical plants without enough protection. And we have to make sure that first responders, our police and fire and EMTs and others, have all of the training and equipment that they need.

But as you know, ladies and gentlemen, because I know you think about this a lot as former service people, winning the war on terror demands a team effort.

We all know that the best intelligence comes from working cooperatively with other nations.

KERRY: And the most significant tool in a war on terror is good intelligence. You've got to know who they are, where they are, what they're planning, and you've got to be able to go get them before they get us.

And that requires the greatest cooperation with other countries that we've ever had.

That is why, for months now, I have been calling for the creation of a national intelligence director with the authority to oversee all of our intelligence services, to pull all of the information together to provide the maximum security to our nation.

Last month, the 9/11 Commission embraced many of these ideas. I've urged the president and the Congress to act and act now and implement them.

But if we're going to win this war -- and we will -- we have to listen to another profoundly important recommendation made by this commission. I share it with you. I quote, "Long-term success demands the use of all elements of national power: diplomacy, intelligence, covert action, law enforcement, economic policy, foreign aid, public diplomacy and homeland defense."

As president, I will fight a smarter, more effective war on terror. We will deploy every tool in our arsenal -- our economic, as well as our military might, our principles, as well as our firepower.

And only then will we be able to tell the terrorists, "You will lose and we will win."

(APPLAUSE)

Finally, I want to say something about the plan that the president announced on Monday to withdraw 70,000 troops from Asia and Europe.

KERRY: Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars. But it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible way. This is not that time or that way.

Let's be clear. The president's vaguely stated plan does not strengthen our hand in the war on terror. It in no way relieves the strain on our overextended military personnel. It doesn't even begin until 2006, and it takes 10 years to achieve.

And this hastily announced plan raises more doubts about our intentions and our commitment than it provides real answers. For example, why are we withdrawing unilaterally 12,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula at the very time that we are negotiating with North Korea, a country that really has nuclear weapons?

(APPLAUSE)

As Senator John McCain said, quote, "I'm particularly concerned about moving troops out of South Korea, when North Korea has probably never been more dangerous at any time since the end of the Korean War."

This is clearly the wrong signal to send at the wrong time. With Al Qaida operating in 60 countries, we need closer alliances in every part of the world to fight and win the war on terrorism.

So as president, I will be a commander in chief who renews our alliances based on shared interests and a common vision for a safer world.

For more than 50 years, our allies have joined with us to say -- to say clearly -- the future doesn't belong to fear, it belongs to freedom.

(APPLAUSE)

As veterans, there isn't one of us here who doesn't know to a certainty that we can win the war on terror, and we will. As men and women who have worn the uniform of our country, you know better than most that we can make our nation stronger here at home and respected throughout the world.

And so whether the issue is standing by our vets and their families, or whether it's standing up for our principles, our values and our freedom, the big question before us is not just who will lead America, it is whether America will continue to lead the world.

I am running for president because I believe that if we honor our highest values, if we do right by our men and women in uniform, America will always continue to be a beacon of hope and of freedom for all in the world.

America's promise is there. America's hope is there. Our best days are ahead of us.

Thank you for your service to our country. God bless you all. And God bless the United States of America.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

KAGAN: We've been listening to Senator John Kerry as he addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. That convention taking place in Cincinnati. This is the same convention that President Bush addressed two days ago and made some major policy announcements involving the U.S. military. Among Senator Kerry's points today, talking about redeployment, the very point that President Bush was making two days ago. Senator Kerry believing that the plans that President Bush has for the military -- they could happen at a different time, but he believes right now that this is not the right time to pull troops in from different places around the world. He says it's not the right time and it doesn't make sense.

Also making points that he thinks that there should be a national intelligence director, one that has full budgetary power; a position that was supported by the 9/11 Commission.

Let's bring in our Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst who was listening into the speech, making some comments before the speech, and also listening in.

Bill, what did you hear?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I heard a foreign policy statement that basically reduces to one central concept. It's a complicated word. Multilateralism. Very Kerry word, but what he argues is in order to fight the war on terror, the United States needs a closer relationship with its allies; and that the United States has decided under President Bush to go it alone more and more, most conspicuously in Iraq. And even with the troop withdrawal plan, for the next 10 years, that President Bush announced to the same group on Monday.

What Kerry was saying is we can't go it alone and expect to win the war on terror. This has to be fought collaboratively. There are intelligence needs, close cooperation with our allies, and it sends the wrong signal, he said, to be withdrawing from Europe and the Far East just at a time when we need closer relationships with America's traditional allies.

KAGAN: All right, Bill Schneider, thanks for hanging with us during the speech. We want to get some reaction now from former White House aide Richard Falkenrath, he joins us from Bush-Cheney headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

Richard, good morning, thanks for being here with us.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, FMR. WHITE HOUSE AIDE: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's go over some of the points that we heard Senator Kerry make in the speech. First of all, the point that was addressing and reacting to the announcement that President Bush made when he talked to this very same group two days ago, and that is the proposal to redeploy many of the U.S. troops that are already stationed around the world. He says there is -- Senator Kerry says there is a time, a right time to do something like this. He says the time is not now. It does not make sense. And he says the plan that President Bush proposed two days ago is actually dangerous. Your reaction, please.

FALKENRATH: I think Senator Kerry is really on the wrong side of this issue. And it reflects a sort of pre-9/11 mindset to the military power and its role in the war on terror. This is a plan that has been long in the making. Senator Kerry called it hasty. It is not hasty. It has been developed for over three years with really intensive work by the Department of Defense, the interagency and with our allies.

It came as no surprise to any of our allies that the president would make the announcement that he did. And in fact, many of the allies regarded it as long overdue. They themselves are undergoing major realignments in their force structure. And this plan, this announcement, which is not just a withdrawal, it is a realignment, will be done in coordination with their own force structuring.

So Senator Kerry is on the wrong side of this issue.

KAGAN: All right. Let's look at one of the specifics that he looked at, and that is South Korea, bringing back 12,000 troops -- well, bringing back 12,000 troops, he says that this is a time when you're looking at a country, South Korea, that is next to North Korea, a country that the United States is trying to negotiate with, a country that we do know for sure has nuclear weapons, that this is sending the wrong message to the South Koreans and to the North Korean as well.

FALKENRATH: This is Senator Kerry's old-think. It equates military power and the quality of deterrence with numbers of forces. And we know that in the modern age, in the 21st century, military power is about speed, lethality and precision and mobility. And the realignment plan that the president announced has been talked about with the South Koreans, who themselves have an extremely impressive military, well able to handle the challenge presented by North Korea, and it has been worked out with them.

The American people know the president is not going to be taking any action that reduces our ability to defend our interests on the Korean peninsula and his plan does not do that.

KAGAN: I want to talk about another point the senator brought up, the national intelligence director. President Bush has come out and said that he wants one form of this office, but he has not been very specific on exactly what that person would be doing and -- we're working on the satellite. I'm only pausing here because we're seeing color bars come up, Richard.

But we have you here with us. This point of this national intelligence director, President Bush has come out and said that he would like to see this office created. But in terms of full budgetary power and how much power that position would hold, that is still very much up in the air in term of details we're still waiting to get from this administration.

FALKENRATH: That's -- well, it's a complicated legislative process. And what the president says, he wants a national intelligence director and he's prepared to work with the Congress to get it. Congress has hearings under way in both chambers. So a lot of different ideas working on. And the administration has embraced the idea of the 9/11 Commission and is work with the legislative branch to get it done. Senator Kerry, I think, needs to answer, where was he when all the hearings were happening on intelligence? He is a member of the Intelligence Committee, but he was absent for most of the hearings when they were working on these exact issues.

KAGAN: The president, though, has not completely embraced the complete job description as proposed by the 9/11 Commission. And, in fact, has not had incredible (ph) details about what the position would look like. When do you think the American public will hear from the administration on that?

FALKENRATH: My understanding is the process is ongoing and that legislation will be emerging in September. But I have some experience with the legislative process. I know how complicated it is, how many different committees are involved and these things can take some time and are often sort of confused before the legislative branch aligns around a single proposal.

KAGAN: Well, there is no shortage of hearings on the 9/11 Commission on Capitol Hill, that is for sure. Richard Falkenrath, thank you...

FALKENRATH: Thank you.

KAGAN: ... for being with us today and listening in to the speech and giving us a different perspective. Thank you for that.

Our Paula Zahn is in Canton, Ohio, to host a town hall meeting tonight. "The Undecided Vote" is what the hour is called. Key officials of both campaigns will be there to answer questions. And be sure to e-mail your questions to cnn.com/paula. "PAULA ZAHN NOW," live at 8:00 Eastern tonight.

Taking a stand in the heartland. It is an election year. You know that. Some country music stars are making their voices heard.

Plus, who's to blame? A skateboarder says she was burned -- look at that. She was burned after falling on a manhole cover in New York City. We're going to hear her story when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. Let's check what's happening now in the news for this Wednesday, August 18. Word came about 45 minutes ago that radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to a deal in Najaf. In a letter read to delegates in Baghdad, al-Sadr agreed to Iraqi government terms and said he'll withdraw his fighters from the Imam Ali Mosque. Al-Sadr failed to meet with government delegations yesterday to talk about a deal to end two weeks of fighting.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry this hour criticized President Bush's plan to ship 20,000 troops from Europe and Asia. You saw those comments live here on CNN. He was speaking before a veterans group in Cincinnati. Kerry saying the move threatens U.S. security and sends the wrong signal to North Korea.

Another scandal touching New Jersey Governor James McGreevey reaches court this hour. A top donor to McGreevey's campaign is expected to plead guilty to a charge he paid a prostitute to seduce a government witness.

And Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat admits today his administration has made mistakes. Aides say that Arafat was signaling support for reform within the Palestinian Authority.

Keeping you informed. CNN is the most trusted name in news.

Well, everywhere you look these days, it seems like there are some strong, sometimes angry, political and social opinions. Beginning today, we're going to start looking at that divide in a series of reports leading up to Election Day.

Case in point, a head-to-head battle is brewing in the world of music. Some of country music's heavy hitters say they are fed up with Hollywood's influence -- liberal influence in national politics. Although officially nonpartisan, it is clear where the loyalties lie. Performer Ricky Skaggs appears today at a Bush campaign event in Minnesota.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're certainly not going to let Hollywood choose who we vote for because I don't think they really have a pulse on America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Some on the right have also taken aim at Bruce Springsteen, who will perform with other musicians in a series of anti-Bush fund-raising concerts in early October. And a conservative U.S. Senate candidate is in New York planning to air 30-second television spots urging supporters to protest the Boss' liberal politics by boycotting and his concerts.

So you've got your red states, your blue states. You need not look any farther than the 2000 election to know Americans are politically polarized, right? Well, nonsense, says our guest in his new book. It is called "Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America." The author is Morris Fiorina. He is a professor of political science at Stanford University.

Professor, good morning, thanks for being here with us.

PROF. MORRIS FIORINA, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Are you telling me we are all just one big one happy family here in America?

FIORINA: I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is the divisions within the population have been grossly exaggerated by both politicians and people in the media over the last 10 years or so. KAGAN: All right. Well, let's look at some of the examples that we found in terms of what might represent red states and blue state, some of the things popular they're selling in the media right now. You've got these books like, look at these: "Bushworld: Enter At Your Own Risk", that's by Maureen Dowd; "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends On It", that's by Hugh Hewitt; and "Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America"; and "Unit (sic) for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speaking (sic) Out Against John Kerry". Are those not examples of a divided America?

FIORINA: They're examples of a certain number of people who are divided but it's a relatively small proportion of the population. There's a major Annenberg survey released just about two weeks ago which found that only 8 percent of the population, the adult population, has seen Michael Moore's movie, and only 7 percent of the population has ever listened to Rush Limbaugh.

And these are the kinds of people you cover in the media. These are the kinds of people who are active in politics. And it gives a very distorted picture of what the American population as a whole feels like.

KAGAN: So who is out there then in your view?

FIORINA: Who?

KAGAN: Yes, who -- what is out there and who is out there?

FIORINA: The bulk of the American population is, as it has always been, very pragmatic in its orientation, not ideological. They're by and large tolerant of other people's values and lifestyles and getting more so. The data clearly show that. And as a population it's a largely moderate population that is really not being addressed by traditionally either party in the last 10 or 20 years, although I'm hopeful that we'll start seeing some movement in that direction.

KAGAN: Now where do you think the country does go from here?

FIORINA: God only knows. I think we're going to have another close election. I think the Republicans are likely to control Congress. I don't think there's a big popular majority to do anything. I think there are real problems. People are not sure of the solutions, the directions we ought to be going in to solve them.

KAGAN: The book is called "Culture War? The New (sic) Myth of a Polarized America." Professor Fiorina, thanks for stopping by...

FIORINA: Thank you.

KAGAN: ...today. Well, wait until you see the picture we're going to show you. A manhole tattoo? Probably not what you're looking for. A skateboarder burned after falling on a New York manhole. She's sharing her story just ahead.

This is CNN LIVE TODAY, we're back after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Jurors in the Scott Peterson murder trial have spent days listening to tapes of him and his former mistress. Today, they're going to hear from Amber Frey in person. She returns to the stand to face cross-examination.

Our Rusty Dornin is in Redwood City, in California, where the trial resumes in the next hour.

Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

We're just minutes away from a much-anticipated confrontation, after 43 phone calls, sometimes boring, sometimes amusing, sometimes titillating. Those final phone calls between Scott Peterson and Amber Frey were played yesterday. The last few calls did show that even after seven weeks after his wife's disappearance, Scott Peterson was still pursuing Amber Frey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice-over): More than three weeks after Laci Peterson's disappearance, an angry Amber Frey still wants to know why Scott Peterson can't tell her what's going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER FREY: When, when? And why does it have to take so long? Why does my life have to be affected by this, and when is it going to stop, Scott?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Frey briefly took the stand, and told the court exactly one month after Laci's disappearance, a local radio station began identifying her as Scott Peterson's mistress. Frey called police. They picked her up and took her to Modesto, where she told reporters she had a relationship with Peterson.

FREY: Scott told me he was not married.

DORNIN: Peterson applauds her for going public, and continues to woo her, trying to convince her to meet him face to face.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREY: I can't have you come to my house, Scott.

SCOTT PETERSON: OK.

FREY: And I have Aiyanna with me.

PETERSON: I know. I -- I can't say I understand, but OK.

FREY: But...

PETERSON: You know I'm not a monster, Amber.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: He even tries to convince her to go up to a mountain cabin. Finally, on February 19th, she draws the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREY: I think it would be best if you and I didn't talk any more until there's resolution in this whole...

PETERSON: Yes, I agree with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now that the tapes have played out, the big question is just how aggressively will defense attorney Mark Geragos cross-examine Frey.

GLORIA ALLRED, AMBER FREY'S ATTORNEY: I don't know any of us who would want to trade places with Amber Frey.

DORNIN: And how long will he keep her on the stand?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: The judge laid down a few ground rules for the defense. They can't ask anything about sexual relationships before or after Scott Peterson, but Amber Frey did bring up a few of her boyfriends during those conversations, so that is free ground right there -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, I think Gloria Allred said it best, nobody envies Amber Frey today; she has a tough day ahead of her.

Thank you, Rusty Dornin, in Redwood City, California.

We move on now, tattooing, piercing and even branding, these are fashion statements these days. But a skater in New York got an unwanted branding on her back last week. She trip and fell on a steamed manhole cover, which turned out to be extremely hot.

Liz Wallenberg join us from New York to talk about her ordeal. She's also with her attorney, Ronald Berman.

Good morning to both of you. Thank you.

RONALD P. BERMAN, WALLENBERG'S ATTY.: Good morning.

LIZ WALLENBERG, BURNED BY MANHOLE COVER: Good morning. Thanks for having us.

KAGAN: Liz, take us to last week and tell us what happened. WALLENBERG: Well, I was riding my skate board down 13th Street, and I was going to meet my friends at a bar, and I hit a hole, or a bump in the road, and I fell and landed on a manhole cover, and got up and ran to my friends and noticed that my back was bubbling, and that I was branded.

KAGAN: So we can show that video again, once again, so we can talk a little about what happened.

So this is from, because the manhole cover was -- you say it was so hot.

WALLENBERG: Yes.

KAGAN: And so did you realize at the time that you were being burnt?

WALLENBERG: No, When I had initially fallen, I didn't realize I was being burned. I noticed my back hurt a little bit more than it should have from a fall, but I just tried to get up out of the middle of the road, because I didn't want to get run over, so I...

KAGAN: Good move, good idea.

WALLENBERG: Yes.

So I asked my friend to look at it, because I didn't really -- I didn't know what it looked like. I just felt like I was burning. So -- and then I saw that it was a manhole cover on my back.

KAGAN: And has anyone suggested -- as we said, tattoos and branding all this stuff. Has anyone suggested that you did this on purpose?

WALLENBERG: No, I mean, I've gotten a few remarks online, people being silly. But obviously, I would not do something like that on purpose.

KAGAN: That's not what you're look to do.

WALLENBERG: No.

KAGAN: We do have a statement from Con Edison who says this, that "Con Edison was informed of potential problems with the Manhattan steam hole on August 13. And a woman told the company she'd been injured on a manhole. Con Edison inspected the intersection, replaced two of three steam manholes on August 14th. A third was replaced on the next day. The company has a long-standing program to put safety coating on steam manholes." And then asking -- saying we can expect the other ones, and if anyone has any other problems, to get in touch with the company.

Ron, let's bring you in here. Are we talking a lawsuit now? Are you thinking about suing Con Edison?

BERMAN: I think that's certainly a possibility, but it's not our priority at this moment.

KAGAN: What is your priority?

BERMAN: We're principally interested in seeing to it that legislation now being proposed in the city council by councilwoman Lopez is passed, and that as a result of passage of that legislation, Con Ed will be obliged to inspect, to report, and to repair in a manner that will prevent situations like this from occurring again.

KAGAN: On a very serious note, in terms of it occurring again, Liz was just a couple blocks away from last January, where last January a woman was electrocuted by stepping on a Con Ed...

BERMAN: That's exactly right. And since that time, incidents involving what is called stray voltage and other problems have crept up, particularly in this area. That's why this legislation is so important, because self-policing by Con Ed just doesn't seem to do the trick.

KAGAN: Liz, real quickly, those are burns on your back and your arms. Do you expect there to be scarring, or do you think that's going to go away after you heal?

WALLENBERG: The doctors did say I'm going to have some scarring, and that I was referred to a plastic surgeon, so I'm going to see what they say about it.

KAGAN: We wish you well in your recovery. The pictures tell a very interesting story. Liz Wallenberg, thanks for sharing your story.

WALLENBERG: Thank you.

KAGAN: And Ron Berman, thanks for being here as well.

BERMAN: Thank you for having us.

KAGAN: That leads us right up to the end. I'm Daryn Kagan. I'm going to see you tomorrow morning from New York City. I hope you'll join me. Wolf Blitzer will be joining you right after this very short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired August 18, 2004 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're hitting it on the dot today, 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.
We have breaking news this hour from Iraq. A sudden turnabout in Najaf. There is word now of a peace deal with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Let's get the latest now. Our John Vause standing by in Baghdad -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Daryn.

Word that al-Sadr had agreed to the negotiations, to the demands put to him by that peace delegation came about 20 minutes ago. It was read out to the delegates on the floor. It came in the form of a letter from al-Sadr's Baghdad office. When news spread of the letter, when they read it out, there were cheers from the delegates there, as they heard that al-Sadr agreed to the three demand the delegation had put to his aides last night in Najaf.

Those demands being that he and his Mehdi militia leave the Imam Ali Mosque. The other one, that he dissolve his Mehdi militia. And the third one, that he join the political process.

Still very, very early days. There's still a lot of undecideds here.

What sort of time frame are we talking? Who will, in fact, decide when the Mehdi militia has been dissolved? There's still a few things which can go wrong, but it's certainly looking very positive on the surface of all of this -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Couple questions for you, John. First of all, this really just came -- excuse me -- came down to the breaking point in terms of the interim government threatening to literally storm this mosque.

VAUSE: That's right, Daryn. We'd heard a number of statements from the interim Iraqi government, from the defense minister, saying time for talking was over. Military preparations were ready to liberate the mosque.

We heard from the interim Iraqi prime minister, saying that he would not stand back, arms folded. He would restore law and order to Najaf. We've seen an ongoing operation in Najaf, 2,000 U.S. Marines, more than 1,000 Iraqi forces within 500 yards of the Imam Ali Mosque, literally poised at the gate, waiting on that command to go into that mosque to liberate it, in the words of the Iraqi defense minister, to rid it, in the words of the prime minister, of the Mehdi militia.

So this really did come right down to a breaking point. So whether al-Sadr has buckled under that pressure, both the political pressure which he's getting from the Iraqi conference, which is being held here in Baghdad right now, combined with the military pressure, both those factors obviously playing into this.

But as we say this, is still very early days. We have yet to hear from al-Sadr himself. This was in the form of a letter. It will be interesting to see if al-Sadr has anything to say in the coming hours and whether or not he confirms everything which was put in that letter -- Daryn.

KAGAN: John Vause -- John Vause in Baghdad. We'll have more with you ahead.

Right now, we want to go live to Cincinnati. Senator John Kerry is speaking there. He's just beginning to speak. And as he's going through his thank-yous and saying hello, let's bring in our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, and get a little bit of thoughts about what we're going to hear here, and just even thoughts on the veteran vote and which way it's leaning -- Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Mr. Kerry is speaking to the same group that President Bush spoke to the other day when President Bush made his dramatic announcement that some 70,000 American forces would be brought home from the places mostly in East Asia and Europe, where they've been deployed really since World War II. Most of them in South Korea and Japan in Asia, and in Germany, in Europe.

He's likely to criticize that plan, saying that it just epitomizes what he calls President Bush's "go it alone" international policy, which puts everything at stake for the United States and Iraq, and seems to abandon, he says, the interests of traditional American allies.

KAGAN: All right, Bill. Let's go ahead and listen in to Senator Kerry. We'll talk after the speech.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me offer this pledge.

As president, I will always remember that America's security begins and ends with the soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Guardsman, Coast Guardsman, with every man and every woman in our armed services who has ever stood guard at the gates of freedom. Today, I salute each and every one of you for your commitment, your strength and your extraordinary courage. America says thank you and we all join today in a special salute to the greatest generation veterans whose memorial finally stands proudly in a place of honor on the Mall in Washington.

Thank you for your extraordinary example as citizen soldiers.

(APPLAUSE) I also want to just say a word briefly, if I may, to those who are currently risking their lives in places as far away as Iraq and Afghanistan and other places. America's prayers are with you. We honor your service. We thank you for your sacrifice. And we pledge to stand with you and with your families as you stand for ours.

(APPLAUSE)

Like veterans of all wars past, today's fighting men and women deserve our prayers and support, and then when they come home, they deserve the respect and welcome of a grateful nation.

After all, the first definition of patriotism in my judgment, beyond service to country, is keeping faith with those who have worn the uniform of the United States of America.

And one of the best ways to do that is to make sure that those who have served us on the front lines return to an America that gives them the tools to build strong families and strong communities here at home. This means the transitional assistance to be able to help all of those returning from war struggling to adjust to civilian life and coping with the scars of battle, both those seen and unseen.

KERRY: This is about keeping a sacred promise. It's about love of country. And it is about protecting those who have risked their lives to protect ours.

Now, in recent days, you have heard from some who claimed that the job is getting done for veterans. Well, just saying that the job is getting done doesn't make it so.

My friends, let me tell you when the job will be getting done. The job will be done when 500,000 veterans are not excluded from the V.A. health care system.

(APPLAUSE)

The job will be done when we're not closing V.A. hospitals so that veterans have difficulty reaching the very care that they need. The job will be done when veterans are not asked for increasing co- payments, enrollment fees and other charges that shift the burden of care to other veterans and drive more than a million veterans out of the system.

(APPLAUSE)

The job will be done when 400,000 military retirees get real concurrent receipt.

(APPLAUSE)

The job will be done when there are no homeless veterans on the streets of America.

(APPLAUSE) The job will be done when more than 320,000 veterans no longer are waiting on decisions on disability and 100,000 are not awaiting appeals of those decisions.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: And the job will be done when the V.A.'s secretary does not have to complain publicly that he needs more than the White House wanted to give him.

And the job will be done when the family of a 21-year-old named Jay Brassino (ph), a veteran who faces a lifetime of disability, when that family doesn't have to sleep at his bedside because the V.A. can't afford to give him the round-the-clock nursing care that he needs and deserves.

(APPLAUSE)

It is clear that when it comes to protecting, when it comes to saying thank you, when it comes to living up to our obligation to honor those who wore the uniform, America's 26 million veterans and their families are far from being able to claim mission accomplished.

Let me make this clear.

For 35 years, I have stood up and fought and kept faith with my fellow veterans. As president, I will stand with you to complete that mission. The sacrifices that you've made on the battlefield are well known, but what is not as well known is the long battle of these 35 years.

I can remember when we came back from service in what we all know was a controversial period of time; I wish it hadn't been. I volunteered for my country. I volunteered to go to Vietnam. I volunteered for the duty that we had. I didn't make it controversial; the war and the times were.

And as too many of us know, it was a time when the war and the warriors became confused.

I say to you, with my experience, never again in America should the warriors ever be confused with the war. And our nation should always be prepared to stand and say thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

KERRY: But here is what I know. Here is what I know in my heart and in my gut.

When I visited hospitals after I returned, I saw vets who weren't getting the care they needed, and we raised our voices and we fought hard and we got additional funding for those V.A. hospitals. We got hospital care for places that couldn't provide it.

I know how we reached out and we found the first medical assistance in the country to help veterans be able to adjust, who were having difficulties re-entering into life. We put together the first ever outreach groups to help deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, which has now become recognized across our V.A. system.

I know how we pushed to get the GI Bill extended so that veterans who had been lost, who kind of dropped out, who didn't quite know how to process it all, were able to still use their GI Bill and get the benefits that they had coming to them.

And I know how we won increases hard fought for veterans' allowances and for living expenses so veterans were able to go to school and open the doors of opportunity.

I stand here in front of you proud in my heart and in my gut that we kept faith together. It was veterans fighting for veterans, veterans standing up and speaking on behalf of veterans.

And together, with the help from the leadership of the VFW, we can be proud that we put in place the most thorough, the most extensive, the most exhaustive, the most expensive effort in all of human history to account for our missing, captured, or dead in all of the history of human warfare.

We made that happen. We veterans made that happen. We kept faith and we should be proud of keeping faith with our fellow servicemen and women.

(APPLAUSE)

I am especially proud that together with former Senator Bob Smith and Senator John McCain we led that fight and we won this fight. When I got involved in this issue, there were hundreds of individuals, hundreds of families in America, who didn't have answers about their loved ones. Their fates were unknown.

Today, thanks to our work together, and I particularly thank Larry Rivers, who was then your commander in chief, who worked so hard to help us make this happen, today that number has been reduced from hundreds to 35.

(APPLAUSE)

That means that families now have the peace of mind and the comfort of knowing that their loved ones are resting in peace, of knowing what happened.

KERRY: I went back to Vietnam to search for our POWs and our missing, because I believe, as I know you do, that our troops never leave anyone behind. That is the standard by which we live.

(APPLAUSE)

That is why I fought for the legislation that allowed veterans to be treated. I not only fought for it; I wrote it. I drafted it. Tom Daschle and I pushed it, and we got it passed.

And today, veterans are treated in hospitals for devastating agent orange conditions like cancer and neurological disorders. Again, we kept faith and we provided help, as we have with the Gulf War syndrome and others.

And I will continue to stand with you as president, leading the fight for a military family bill of rights and leading the fight for full mandatory funding for veterans health care, which is what we need to keep faith in this country.

(APPLAUSE)

As many of you know, some of you may be those parents. A lot of military families are going through difficult times these days. Many of their loved ones are in faraway places, leaving the families at home to care for the entire family.

As many people also know, guardsmen and reserves who are called up are often going down in their pay from what they got on the civilian side when they go into the military. So families are left behind struggling to keep up with the mortgage, or the tuition payments and other things. I believe we ought to be helping those folks.

The last thing our servicemen and women need on their minds is the stress of wondering if their loved ones back home are going to be OK and can pay the bills. And what they need, in my judgment, is a president who protects their families while they are putting their lives on the line for the American family.

That means making sure that families have competitive pay, good housing, decent health care and quality education for their children. And keeping faith with our veterans also means making sure they get full concurrent receipt.

(APPLAUSE)

Today, we've only partially met this obligation. And I'm not going to come to the VFW to tell you the job is done when it isn't done.

If you earned a pension, it's yours. It belongs to you because you did what you were supposed to do according to the rules. You worked a lifetime. You worked up your pay grade. You earned that pension just like everybody else in the private sector.

KERRY: And if you get a disability payment, it's yours because you suffered.

And I'll tell you what: I don't believe that you subtract what you have suffered from what you have earned.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I won't stop fighting until our veterans get the full disability payments that they deserve.

(APPLAUSE) You and I, by virtue of our membership in this organization, once left our families and our shores to defend the principles that make America great, and we understand more than most the cost of keeping our country free.

When you hear that more than 940 American troops have been lost on the battlefield in Iraq and that more than 6,200 of our troops have been wounded, some disabled for a lifetime, these are more than numbers to each and every one of us here; these are our brothers and our sisters, our sons and our daughters, America's heroes.

They testify to the truth: That we will never back down in defense of freedom, not us, not the United States of America. We will use superior military force to overcome any enemy.

And let me be clear. Like you, I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

I will never hesitate, not for an instant, to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response. Any imminent threat to our security will be dealt with swiftly and severely.

I will never give any nation or any international institution a veto over our national security. And I will build a stronger military.

But in these dangerous times, there is a right way and a wrong way to be strong.

KERRY: Strength is more than tough words.

After September 11th, I'm proud that all of our people rallied to President Bush's call for unity to meet the danger. There were no Democrats. There were no Republicans. There were only Americans. And how we wish it had stayed that way.

(APPLAUSE)

But since then, you know it as well as I do, we've become a country divided over Iraq, and it didn't have to be that way.

As veterans, we know what kids go through when they're carrying an M-16 in a dangerous place and they can't tell the difference between friend and foe. We know what they go through when they're out on patrol at night and they don't know what's coming around the next bend. We know what it's like to write letters home and tell your family that everything's all right, even though you're not sure inside of you that it really is.

I know what we have to do in Iraq. We need a president who has the credibility to bring our allies to our side, because that's the right way to get the job done in Iraq and bring our troops home.

(APPLAUSE)

And for anyone who questions that, I just ask you to use your common sense. Use your power of thought as a free American.

Every Arab country has a stake in not having a failed Iraq, but they're not at the table. Every European country has a stake in not having a failed Iraq and not having a civil war, but they're not at the table.

I believe we can do a better job. I believe we can bring NATO and other nations to share the cost and the burdens.

KERRY: Right now, the United States of America, your taxpayer dollars, are shouldering the lion's share of this effort even though other people have a legitimate stake in fighting a war on terror.

Nearly 90 percent of all the coalition forces are Americans. And nearly 90 percent of coalition coffins are draped with the American flag.

The American taxpayers are paying the vast share of the cost of this war.

I believe we can do better. I believe we can massively improve and accelerate our training of Iraqi police and security forces so they can defend their own country.

And we need to ensure that there is far greater security to provide credible elections in 2005 to advance Iraq's transition to a stable and representative democracy.

As president, I will always ask the hard questions and I will demand hard evidence and I will tell the American people the truth. Some may not like it, but I'll tell them the truth. And I will immediately reform our intelligence system so that policy is guided by facts and facts are never distorted by politics.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I will wage war with the lessons that I learned in war. And some of those lessons run deep, folks -- what it means to have people without the equipment they need or jerry-rigging or, you know what I'm talking about, when the difficulties of the field confront the realities of the soldier.

Before you go to battle, before you go to battle, I believe you have to be able to look a parent or a family in the eye and you have to truthfully say to them, "We tried to do everything possible to avoid sending your son or daughter into harm's way, but we had no choice."

That, to me, is the test.

And now, with so much at stake in the struggle against Al Qaida, the American people want to hear in plain words the answer to a simple question: How are we going to get the terrorists before they get us? KERRY: Just what is our strategy, not just for striking back against the terrorists, but for defeating their aims, destroying their movement, discrediting their cause, and bringing old and new friends to our side?

What is our long-term strategy for making America safer?

Over the course of this campaign, I have laid out my plans to reshape and rebuild the American military so it is ready to fight tomorrow's wars, not yesterday's.

As a combat veteran who's walked in your shoes, I know that the first duty of a commander in chief is to make sure that our troops are the best trained, best equipped fighting force in the world, and to never send them into battle without a plan to win the peace. That is essential.

(APPLAUSE)

That is why I have called for adding 40,000 troops, new troops, not in Iraq -- let me emphasize, not in Iraq -- but to relieve the pressure on the overstretched armed forces of today.

The fact is that the war in Iraq has taken a real toll on our armed services. Ninety percent -- 90 percent -- of the Army's active duty combat divisions are either in Iraq, have been to Iraq and are recovering, or they're on their way.

I will also double the Army's special forces so that we can find and get the terrorists before they get us.

(APPLAUSE)

And we must end the stop loss and involuntary recall of troops that amounts to nothing more than a back door draft. Our reserves and guards are overextended. And to fight this war, we've called them up at historic levels -- many of these units being pushed to the limit.

The administration has extended tours of duty, delayed retirements, prevented enlisted personnel from leaving the service. And when these troops come home, many have lost the job that they left.

We're going to see to it that everyone who has fought for this country has a good job when they come back to the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

At the same time, I believe we need to strengthen homeland security, and we have to do everything we can to prevent another 9/11.

We shouldn't be letting 95 percent of our container ships come into our ports without ever being physically inspected. We shouldn't be leaving nuclear and chemical plants without enough protection. And we have to make sure that first responders, our police and fire and EMTs and others, have all of the training and equipment that they need.

But as you know, ladies and gentlemen, because I know you think about this a lot as former service people, winning the war on terror demands a team effort.

We all know that the best intelligence comes from working cooperatively with other nations.

KERRY: And the most significant tool in a war on terror is good intelligence. You've got to know who they are, where they are, what they're planning, and you've got to be able to go get them before they get us.

And that requires the greatest cooperation with other countries that we've ever had.

That is why, for months now, I have been calling for the creation of a national intelligence director with the authority to oversee all of our intelligence services, to pull all of the information together to provide the maximum security to our nation.

Last month, the 9/11 Commission embraced many of these ideas. I've urged the president and the Congress to act and act now and implement them.

But if we're going to win this war -- and we will -- we have to listen to another profoundly important recommendation made by this commission. I share it with you. I quote, "Long-term success demands the use of all elements of national power: diplomacy, intelligence, covert action, law enforcement, economic policy, foreign aid, public diplomacy and homeland defense."

As president, I will fight a smarter, more effective war on terror. We will deploy every tool in our arsenal -- our economic, as well as our military might, our principles, as well as our firepower.

And only then will we be able to tell the terrorists, "You will lose and we will win."

(APPLAUSE)

Finally, I want to say something about the plan that the president announced on Monday to withdraw 70,000 troops from Asia and Europe.

KERRY: Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars. But it needs to be done at the right time and in a sensible way. This is not that time or that way.

Let's be clear. The president's vaguely stated plan does not strengthen our hand in the war on terror. It in no way relieves the strain on our overextended military personnel. It doesn't even begin until 2006, and it takes 10 years to achieve.

And this hastily announced plan raises more doubts about our intentions and our commitment than it provides real answers. For example, why are we withdrawing unilaterally 12,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula at the very time that we are negotiating with North Korea, a country that really has nuclear weapons?

(APPLAUSE)

As Senator John McCain said, quote, "I'm particularly concerned about moving troops out of South Korea, when North Korea has probably never been more dangerous at any time since the end of the Korean War."

This is clearly the wrong signal to send at the wrong time. With Al Qaida operating in 60 countries, we need closer alliances in every part of the world to fight and win the war on terrorism.

So as president, I will be a commander in chief who renews our alliances based on shared interests and a common vision for a safer world.

For more than 50 years, our allies have joined with us to say -- to say clearly -- the future doesn't belong to fear, it belongs to freedom.

(APPLAUSE)

As veterans, there isn't one of us here who doesn't know to a certainty that we can win the war on terror, and we will. As men and women who have worn the uniform of our country, you know better than most that we can make our nation stronger here at home and respected throughout the world.

And so whether the issue is standing by our vets and their families, or whether it's standing up for our principles, our values and our freedom, the big question before us is not just who will lead America, it is whether America will continue to lead the world.

I am running for president because I believe that if we honor our highest values, if we do right by our men and women in uniform, America will always continue to be a beacon of hope and of freedom for all in the world.

America's promise is there. America's hope is there. Our best days are ahead of us.

Thank you for your service to our country. God bless you all. And God bless the United States of America.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

KAGAN: We've been listening to Senator John Kerry as he addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. That convention taking place in Cincinnati. This is the same convention that President Bush addressed two days ago and made some major policy announcements involving the U.S. military. Among Senator Kerry's points today, talking about redeployment, the very point that President Bush was making two days ago. Senator Kerry believing that the plans that President Bush has for the military -- they could happen at a different time, but he believes right now that this is not the right time to pull troops in from different places around the world. He says it's not the right time and it doesn't make sense.

Also making points that he thinks that there should be a national intelligence director, one that has full budgetary power; a position that was supported by the 9/11 Commission.

Let's bring in our Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst who was listening into the speech, making some comments before the speech, and also listening in.

Bill, what did you hear?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I heard a foreign policy statement that basically reduces to one central concept. It's a complicated word. Multilateralism. Very Kerry word, but what he argues is in order to fight the war on terror, the United States needs a closer relationship with its allies; and that the United States has decided under President Bush to go it alone more and more, most conspicuously in Iraq. And even with the troop withdrawal plan, for the next 10 years, that President Bush announced to the same group on Monday.

What Kerry was saying is we can't go it alone and expect to win the war on terror. This has to be fought collaboratively. There are intelligence needs, close cooperation with our allies, and it sends the wrong signal, he said, to be withdrawing from Europe and the Far East just at a time when we need closer relationships with America's traditional allies.

KAGAN: All right, Bill Schneider, thanks for hanging with us during the speech. We want to get some reaction now from former White House aide Richard Falkenrath, he joins us from Bush-Cheney headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

Richard, good morning, thanks for being here with us.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, FMR. WHITE HOUSE AIDE: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's go over some of the points that we heard Senator Kerry make in the speech. First of all, the point that was addressing and reacting to the announcement that President Bush made when he talked to this very same group two days ago, and that is the proposal to redeploy many of the U.S. troops that are already stationed around the world. He says there is -- Senator Kerry says there is a time, a right time to do something like this. He says the time is not now. It does not make sense. And he says the plan that President Bush proposed two days ago is actually dangerous. Your reaction, please.

FALKENRATH: I think Senator Kerry is really on the wrong side of this issue. And it reflects a sort of pre-9/11 mindset to the military power and its role in the war on terror. This is a plan that has been long in the making. Senator Kerry called it hasty. It is not hasty. It has been developed for over three years with really intensive work by the Department of Defense, the interagency and with our allies.

It came as no surprise to any of our allies that the president would make the announcement that he did. And in fact, many of the allies regarded it as long overdue. They themselves are undergoing major realignments in their force structure. And this plan, this announcement, which is not just a withdrawal, it is a realignment, will be done in coordination with their own force structuring.

So Senator Kerry is on the wrong side of this issue.

KAGAN: All right. Let's look at one of the specifics that he looked at, and that is South Korea, bringing back 12,000 troops -- well, bringing back 12,000 troops, he says that this is a time when you're looking at a country, South Korea, that is next to North Korea, a country that the United States is trying to negotiate with, a country that we do know for sure has nuclear weapons, that this is sending the wrong message to the South Koreans and to the North Korean as well.

FALKENRATH: This is Senator Kerry's old-think. It equates military power and the quality of deterrence with numbers of forces. And we know that in the modern age, in the 21st century, military power is about speed, lethality and precision and mobility. And the realignment plan that the president announced has been talked about with the South Koreans, who themselves have an extremely impressive military, well able to handle the challenge presented by North Korea, and it has been worked out with them.

The American people know the president is not going to be taking any action that reduces our ability to defend our interests on the Korean peninsula and his plan does not do that.

KAGAN: I want to talk about another point the senator brought up, the national intelligence director. President Bush has come out and said that he wants one form of this office, but he has not been very specific on exactly what that person would be doing and -- we're working on the satellite. I'm only pausing here because we're seeing color bars come up, Richard.

But we have you here with us. This point of this national intelligence director, President Bush has come out and said that he would like to see this office created. But in terms of full budgetary power and how much power that position would hold, that is still very much up in the air in term of details we're still waiting to get from this administration.

FALKENRATH: That's -- well, it's a complicated legislative process. And what the president says, he wants a national intelligence director and he's prepared to work with the Congress to get it. Congress has hearings under way in both chambers. So a lot of different ideas working on. And the administration has embraced the idea of the 9/11 Commission and is work with the legislative branch to get it done. Senator Kerry, I think, needs to answer, where was he when all the hearings were happening on intelligence? He is a member of the Intelligence Committee, but he was absent for most of the hearings when they were working on these exact issues.

KAGAN: The president, though, has not completely embraced the complete job description as proposed by the 9/11 Commission. And, in fact, has not had incredible (ph) details about what the position would look like. When do you think the American public will hear from the administration on that?

FALKENRATH: My understanding is the process is ongoing and that legislation will be emerging in September. But I have some experience with the legislative process. I know how complicated it is, how many different committees are involved and these things can take some time and are often sort of confused before the legislative branch aligns around a single proposal.

KAGAN: Well, there is no shortage of hearings on the 9/11 Commission on Capitol Hill, that is for sure. Richard Falkenrath, thank you...

FALKENRATH: Thank you.

KAGAN: ... for being with us today and listening in to the speech and giving us a different perspective. Thank you for that.

Our Paula Zahn is in Canton, Ohio, to host a town hall meeting tonight. "The Undecided Vote" is what the hour is called. Key officials of both campaigns will be there to answer questions. And be sure to e-mail your questions to cnn.com/paula. "PAULA ZAHN NOW," live at 8:00 Eastern tonight.

Taking a stand in the heartland. It is an election year. You know that. Some country music stars are making their voices heard.

Plus, who's to blame? A skateboarder says she was burned -- look at that. She was burned after falling on a manhole cover in New York City. We're going to hear her story when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. Let's check what's happening now in the news for this Wednesday, August 18. Word came about 45 minutes ago that radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to a deal in Najaf. In a letter read to delegates in Baghdad, al-Sadr agreed to Iraqi government terms and said he'll withdraw his fighters from the Imam Ali Mosque. Al-Sadr failed to meet with government delegations yesterday to talk about a deal to end two weeks of fighting.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry this hour criticized President Bush's plan to ship 20,000 troops from Europe and Asia. You saw those comments live here on CNN. He was speaking before a veterans group in Cincinnati. Kerry saying the move threatens U.S. security and sends the wrong signal to North Korea.

Another scandal touching New Jersey Governor James McGreevey reaches court this hour. A top donor to McGreevey's campaign is expected to plead guilty to a charge he paid a prostitute to seduce a government witness.

And Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat admits today his administration has made mistakes. Aides say that Arafat was signaling support for reform within the Palestinian Authority.

Keeping you informed. CNN is the most trusted name in news.

Well, everywhere you look these days, it seems like there are some strong, sometimes angry, political and social opinions. Beginning today, we're going to start looking at that divide in a series of reports leading up to Election Day.

Case in point, a head-to-head battle is brewing in the world of music. Some of country music's heavy hitters say they are fed up with Hollywood's influence -- liberal influence in national politics. Although officially nonpartisan, it is clear where the loyalties lie. Performer Ricky Skaggs appears today at a Bush campaign event in Minnesota.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're certainly not going to let Hollywood choose who we vote for because I don't think they really have a pulse on America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Some on the right have also taken aim at Bruce Springsteen, who will perform with other musicians in a series of anti-Bush fund-raising concerts in early October. And a conservative U.S. Senate candidate is in New York planning to air 30-second television spots urging supporters to protest the Boss' liberal politics by boycotting and his concerts.

So you've got your red states, your blue states. You need not look any farther than the 2000 election to know Americans are politically polarized, right? Well, nonsense, says our guest in his new book. It is called "Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America." The author is Morris Fiorina. He is a professor of political science at Stanford University.

Professor, good morning, thanks for being here with us.

PROF. MORRIS FIORINA, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Are you telling me we are all just one big one happy family here in America?

FIORINA: I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is the divisions within the population have been grossly exaggerated by both politicians and people in the media over the last 10 years or so. KAGAN: All right. Well, let's look at some of the examples that we found in terms of what might represent red states and blue state, some of the things popular they're selling in the media right now. You've got these books like, look at these: "Bushworld: Enter At Your Own Risk", that's by Maureen Dowd; "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends On It", that's by Hugh Hewitt; and "Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America"; and "Unit (sic) for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speaking (sic) Out Against John Kerry". Are those not examples of a divided America?

FIORINA: They're examples of a certain number of people who are divided but it's a relatively small proportion of the population. There's a major Annenberg survey released just about two weeks ago which found that only 8 percent of the population, the adult population, has seen Michael Moore's movie, and only 7 percent of the population has ever listened to Rush Limbaugh.

And these are the kinds of people you cover in the media. These are the kinds of people who are active in politics. And it gives a very distorted picture of what the American population as a whole feels like.

KAGAN: So who is out there then in your view?

FIORINA: Who?

KAGAN: Yes, who -- what is out there and who is out there?

FIORINA: The bulk of the American population is, as it has always been, very pragmatic in its orientation, not ideological. They're by and large tolerant of other people's values and lifestyles and getting more so. The data clearly show that. And as a population it's a largely moderate population that is really not being addressed by traditionally either party in the last 10 or 20 years, although I'm hopeful that we'll start seeing some movement in that direction.

KAGAN: Now where do you think the country does go from here?

FIORINA: God only knows. I think we're going to have another close election. I think the Republicans are likely to control Congress. I don't think there's a big popular majority to do anything. I think there are real problems. People are not sure of the solutions, the directions we ought to be going in to solve them.

KAGAN: The book is called "Culture War? The New (sic) Myth of a Polarized America." Professor Fiorina, thanks for stopping by...

FIORINA: Thank you.

KAGAN: ...today. Well, wait until you see the picture we're going to show you. A manhole tattoo? Probably not what you're looking for. A skateboarder burned after falling on a New York manhole. She's sharing her story just ahead.

This is CNN LIVE TODAY, we're back after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Jurors in the Scott Peterson murder trial have spent days listening to tapes of him and his former mistress. Today, they're going to hear from Amber Frey in person. She returns to the stand to face cross-examination.

Our Rusty Dornin is in Redwood City, in California, where the trial resumes in the next hour.

Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

We're just minutes away from a much-anticipated confrontation, after 43 phone calls, sometimes boring, sometimes amusing, sometimes titillating. Those final phone calls between Scott Peterson and Amber Frey were played yesterday. The last few calls did show that even after seven weeks after his wife's disappearance, Scott Peterson was still pursuing Amber Frey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice-over): More than three weeks after Laci Peterson's disappearance, an angry Amber Frey still wants to know why Scott Peterson can't tell her what's going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER FREY: When, when? And why does it have to take so long? Why does my life have to be affected by this, and when is it going to stop, Scott?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Frey briefly took the stand, and told the court exactly one month after Laci's disappearance, a local radio station began identifying her as Scott Peterson's mistress. Frey called police. They picked her up and took her to Modesto, where she told reporters she had a relationship with Peterson.

FREY: Scott told me he was not married.

DORNIN: Peterson applauds her for going public, and continues to woo her, trying to convince her to meet him face to face.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREY: I can't have you come to my house, Scott.

SCOTT PETERSON: OK.

FREY: And I have Aiyanna with me.

PETERSON: I know. I -- I can't say I understand, but OK.

FREY: But...

PETERSON: You know I'm not a monster, Amber.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: He even tries to convince her to go up to a mountain cabin. Finally, on February 19th, she draws the line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREY: I think it would be best if you and I didn't talk any more until there's resolution in this whole...

PETERSON: Yes, I agree with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now that the tapes have played out, the big question is just how aggressively will defense attorney Mark Geragos cross-examine Frey.

GLORIA ALLRED, AMBER FREY'S ATTORNEY: I don't know any of us who would want to trade places with Amber Frey.

DORNIN: And how long will he keep her on the stand?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: The judge laid down a few ground rules for the defense. They can't ask anything about sexual relationships before or after Scott Peterson, but Amber Frey did bring up a few of her boyfriends during those conversations, so that is free ground right there -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, I think Gloria Allred said it best, nobody envies Amber Frey today; she has a tough day ahead of her.

Thank you, Rusty Dornin, in Redwood City, California.

We move on now, tattooing, piercing and even branding, these are fashion statements these days. But a skater in New York got an unwanted branding on her back last week. She trip and fell on a steamed manhole cover, which turned out to be extremely hot.

Liz Wallenberg join us from New York to talk about her ordeal. She's also with her attorney, Ronald Berman.

Good morning to both of you. Thank you.

RONALD P. BERMAN, WALLENBERG'S ATTY.: Good morning.

LIZ WALLENBERG, BURNED BY MANHOLE COVER: Good morning. Thanks for having us.

KAGAN: Liz, take us to last week and tell us what happened. WALLENBERG: Well, I was riding my skate board down 13th Street, and I was going to meet my friends at a bar, and I hit a hole, or a bump in the road, and I fell and landed on a manhole cover, and got up and ran to my friends and noticed that my back was bubbling, and that I was branded.

KAGAN: So we can show that video again, once again, so we can talk a little about what happened.

So this is from, because the manhole cover was -- you say it was so hot.

WALLENBERG: Yes.

KAGAN: And so did you realize at the time that you were being burnt?

WALLENBERG: No, When I had initially fallen, I didn't realize I was being burned. I noticed my back hurt a little bit more than it should have from a fall, but I just tried to get up out of the middle of the road, because I didn't want to get run over, so I...

KAGAN: Good move, good idea.

WALLENBERG: Yes.

So I asked my friend to look at it, because I didn't really -- I didn't know what it looked like. I just felt like I was burning. So -- and then I saw that it was a manhole cover on my back.

KAGAN: And has anyone suggested -- as we said, tattoos and branding all this stuff. Has anyone suggested that you did this on purpose?

WALLENBERG: No, I mean, I've gotten a few remarks online, people being silly. But obviously, I would not do something like that on purpose.

KAGAN: That's not what you're look to do.

WALLENBERG: No.

KAGAN: We do have a statement from Con Edison who says this, that "Con Edison was informed of potential problems with the Manhattan steam hole on August 13. And a woman told the company she'd been injured on a manhole. Con Edison inspected the intersection, replaced two of three steam manholes on August 14th. A third was replaced on the next day. The company has a long-standing program to put safety coating on steam manholes." And then asking -- saying we can expect the other ones, and if anyone has any other problems, to get in touch with the company.

Ron, let's bring you in here. Are we talking a lawsuit now? Are you thinking about suing Con Edison?

BERMAN: I think that's certainly a possibility, but it's not our priority at this moment.

KAGAN: What is your priority?

BERMAN: We're principally interested in seeing to it that legislation now being proposed in the city council by councilwoman Lopez is passed, and that as a result of passage of that legislation, Con Ed will be obliged to inspect, to report, and to repair in a manner that will prevent situations like this from occurring again.

KAGAN: On a very serious note, in terms of it occurring again, Liz was just a couple blocks away from last January, where last January a woman was electrocuted by stepping on a Con Ed...

BERMAN: That's exactly right. And since that time, incidents involving what is called stray voltage and other problems have crept up, particularly in this area. That's why this legislation is so important, because self-policing by Con Ed just doesn't seem to do the trick.

KAGAN: Liz, real quickly, those are burns on your back and your arms. Do you expect there to be scarring, or do you think that's going to go away after you heal?

WALLENBERG: The doctors did say I'm going to have some scarring, and that I was referred to a plastic surgeon, so I'm going to see what they say about it.

KAGAN: We wish you well in your recovery. The pictures tell a very interesting story. Liz Wallenberg, thanks for sharing your story.

WALLENBERG: Thank you.

KAGAN: And Ron Berman, thanks for being here as well.

BERMAN: Thank you for having us.

KAGAN: That leads us right up to the end. I'm Daryn Kagan. I'm going to see you tomorrow morning from New York City. I hope you'll join me. Wolf Blitzer will be joining you right after this very short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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