KATE McCANN, Associated Press Writer
Friday, November 7, 2003
(11-07) 13:26 PST MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) --
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said Friday that the use of U.S. military force is not warranted simply because a nation is ruled by a despot.
The front-runner said he supported the war to oust the Taliban in Afghanistan, and backed President Clinton's decision to send troops to Bosnia and Kosovo during the 1990s because force is sometimes necessary to stop genocide.
That was not the case in Iraq, said Dean, a staunch opponent of the war.
"I do not believe force is justified simply because we think someone is a brutal dictator," he told about 1,000 high school students, a reference to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
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"All I ask from the president of the United States is they think carefully before sending young people and putting them in harm's way around the world," Dean said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/07/national1626EST0682.DTL