New York - Pressure intensified on Friday on George Bush over his re-election campaign's use of September 11 images, with victims' families urging the American president to stop treading "on the bodies of our dead."
Some family members told a press conference in New York that they were "outraged" by election television advertisements that showed the devastation at the World Trade Centre site, and the body of a firefighter being carried from the rubble.
"Ground Zero is a sacred site," said Rita Lasar, a steering committee member of the group, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
Lasar, whose brother was killed when the trade centre's twin towers collapsed, urged the Republican president to "find some other way to run a campaign without stepping on the bodies of our dead."
Continues Below ↓
| 'Ground Zero is a sacred site' |
The advertisements, which began airing on Thursday, have kicked up a political storm, with the Bush campaign defending itself against charges of exploiting the tragedy of September 11 for political gain.
Bob McIlvaine, whose 26-year-old son was killed in the terrorist strikes, said the ads were "obscene" and appealed to Bush to pull them out of circulation.
"It upsets me tremendously that Bobby, my son, is being used as a political pawn to be manipulated and at times abused. It truly makes me sick," McIlvaine said.
Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes has defended the ads, saying they were "very tasteful" and appropriate.
"It's a reminder of our shared experience as a nation - not just some distant tragedy from the past. It really defined our future," Hughes said.
| 'Find some other way to run a campaign without stepping on the bodies of our dead' |
And not all victims' relatives were angered by the television campaign.
"It speaks to the truth of the times," said Jennie Farrell, who lost her brother in the attacks. "September 11 was something beyond the realm of imagination, and George Bush led us through one of the darkest moments in history."
The ads marked the first wave of a multi-million dollar campaign planned by the Bush camp ahead of the presidential election on November 2 against Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry.
The campaign will focus on Bush's leadership qualities, painting him as a president capable of keeping the country safe in a post-September 11 world.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, widely credited with guiding the city through the aftermath of the terrorist strikes, said on Friday that the ads were pertinent to the election debate.
"The reality is that President Bush played a very, very big role in bringing our country through the worst attack in our history," Giuliani said.
"It would almost be false to list the challenges that President Bush had to face and not list as one of those challenges the worst attack in this country," he added.
However, McIlvaine argued that using September 11 to reflect Bush's leadership qualities ignored the many unanswered questions that remained over whether the attacks might have been prevented in the first place.
"Instead of parading around this country telling us how secure the country is, please tell us why this country was so insecure that 3 000 people were murdered," McIlvaine said.
The New York Times stepped into the debate on Friday, with an editorial that defined the overriding memories of September 11 as those of heroism and loss.
"Any political candidate who attempts to piggyback onto those emotions deserves to be shunned by the electorate," the Times said. - Sapa-AFP
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
