Kennedy charges Bush Iraq policy, Turkey aid, is contrived

The U.S. is the most powerful voice and money provider to the IMF.

He said that about 2 billion of the running 4 billion dollars a month in U.S. costs for the war were going to foreign countries participating in the U.S.-led coalition.

The remarks from Kennedy, who is not running for the Democratic nomination for the presidency, represent a newly energized frontal attack on Bush for his foreign and domestic policies.

More criticism from Democrats and even Republican politicians has emerged since Bush announced he would need another 87 billion dollars to fight and finish the war in Iraq.

Kennedy charged that U.S. President George Bush’s chief political advisor Karl Rove told the national Republican Committee in a West Coast meeting early last year ”about the advantages the war would have for Republican candidates”.

”There is no question in my mind that the White House has hyped the political aspects of the war in Iraq,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said he was concerned about the Bush administration’s squelching of criticism as ”unpatriotic”.

”The American people want answers, what the cost is going to be,” he said.