NEW YORK (AFP) - Democratic presidential contender John Kerry accused President George W. Bush of creating a "crisis of historic proportions" as infighting over Iraq dominated the US election campaign.
Kerry`s strongest attack yet on Bush`s action in Iraq came one day ahead of the US president`s address to the UN General Assembly where he was again expected to seek to justify the March 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
The Massachusetts senator called for a national debate on Iraq and the war on terror.
But while repeating a hope to replace US troops with soldiers from other countries and Iraqi security forces, Kerry added no new proposals on how to handle the crisis where the US military is suffering a mounting toll.
In a speech at New York University, Kerry said Iraq had become a "profound diversion" from the war on terror "and the battle against our greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden and the terrorists."
"Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions and, if we do not change course, there is the prospect of a war with no end in sight," said Kerry, who is battling to unseat Bush in the November 2 election.
Kerry conceded that "some progress" has been made. "Schools, shops and hospitals have been opened. In parts of Iraq, normalcy prevails. But most Iraqis have lost faith in our ability to deliver meaningful improvements to their lives."
Bush has has acknowledged that miscalculations were made in Iraq, But Kerry said: "That is one of the greatest understatements in recent American history."
"His were not the equivalent of accounting errors. They were colossal failures of judgment and judgment is what we look for in a president."
Bush leads in opinion polls on his ability to resolve the Iraq crisis and lead the war on terror. And the Bush campaign was boosted meanwhile by an admission by the CBS television network that it had been mistaken in using documents whose authenticity could not be verified in a report questioning the president`s Vietnam-era military service.
"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," CBS News president Andrew Heyward said in a statement.
"We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret," he added.
The memos -- allegedly written by Bush`s commanding officer in the Texas National Guard in the 1970s -- suggested political pressure was being exerted to "sugar coat" the future president`s service record.
The "60 Minutes" report also charged that Bush`s family connections had secured his assignment to the National Guard unit -- a posting that effectively spared him active duty in Vietnam.
Questions were soon raised over the authenticity of the memos, with numerous experts arguing the typeface could have been produced only by a modern-day word processor, not Vietnam War-era typewriters.
While the documents used by CBS have been called into question, other studies of Bush`s military records -- which the White House has only grudgingly released -- suggest that Bush fell short of fulfilling his obligations.
The White House has countered any and all suggestions that Bush missed drills or otherwise ducked assignments by pointing to his honorable discharge from the guard in 1973.
The service records of Bush and Kerry have become a volatile election issue, with both candidates seeking to portray themselves as more qualified to lead the country in the war on terror.
Kerry`s campaign has had to fend off an advertising campaign by a pro-Republican group claiming that the senator`s heroism in Vietnam had been exaggerated. A pro-Democrat group responded with an ad suggesting that Bush had failed to fulfill his National Guard service requirements.