WASHINGTON -- A "more sensitive" war on terror? That's a joke, except when Team Bush wants to have one.

Such is the not-so-subtle message in Vice President Dick Cheney's ridicule of Sen. John Kerry's call for a "more sensitive" war on terror."America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive," Cheney told Bush supporters in Dayton, Ohio, Thursday.

"A sensitive war will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans. ... The men who beheaded [U.S. citizens] Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson will not be impressed by our sensitivity."

Cheney's implied message to a crowd heavy with men and women who, unlike Cheney, are military veterans, was that war vet Kerry sounds like a wuss compared to the fearless men and women of Team Bush. Was Cheney right about Kerry? Or, astonishing as it may be to comprehend, was he quoting Kerry out of context? I report, you decide:

Cheney was referring to Kerry's recent statement at the UNITY convention for journalists of color in Washington. In context, Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, said: "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history."

Got that? Kerry called for a "more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive" war on terror, as well as "more sensitive," the adjective upon which Cheney chose to whale away. Full article