Kerry vows to enlarge military

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Democrat John Kerry said Thursday that if he's elected commander in chief, his "first order of business" will be to enlarge the military to end the "back-door draft" that he says President Bush has created by requiring thousands of troops to extend their tours in Iraq.

Kerry came to the Harry Truman Presidential Library for the third speech of an 11-day national security tour that ends this weekend. He said he would modernize the military and add 40,000 troops -- 5,000 of them to double the number of special operations troops.

Kerry advisers said the cost of more troops would be $5 billion to $8 billion a year. That would be partially offset by cuts to the missile-defense program.

In an interview with USA TODAY and in the speech, Kerry presented his most detailed proposals to date on the military. He said he would save several billion dollars by halting deployment of the missile- defense system.

"I'm for research and development," he said. "But to deploy (missile defense) at the current level of test failure is an absurdity. It's a waste of American taxpayer dollars."

In his speech, Kerry said Bush's emphasis on missile defense reflects a failure to focus on terrorists and rogue states. He said the system, meant to shoot down launched missiles before they strike here, is "the wrong priority for a war on terror where the enemy strikes with a bomb in the back of a truck or a vial of anthrax in a suitcase."

Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld already has authorized 30,000 more troops through extended tours and new recruitment. He said the country would be "less safe" under Kerry's approach.

Kerry, sitting at a borrowed desk behind a sign with Truman's famous "buck stops here" motto, told USA TODAY he would have all intelligence agencies report to one director to avoid the turf battles he says hurt George Tenet's performance as CIA director. The new director would be a Cabinet secretary or based in the White House. Either way, Kerry said, that person would control the budgets of all the agencies involved. Fifteen U.S. agencies gather intelligence. Most are at the Pentagon, which has resisted giving up authority.

In the interview, Kerry also said:

-- Bush left it to Britain, France and Germany to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program. Kerry said he would join the effort.

-- Bush's conduct of the Iraq war has made the world less safe. "Iraq is today a base for terror that it wasn't before this started."

Contributing: Richard Benedetto.

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