In their words

Excerpts from the Kerry-O'Reilly debate

An excerpt from the debate between US Senator John F. Kerry and his Democratic challenger, Edward O'Reilly of Gloucester. The debate will air at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow on WBZ-TV.

Q: What will your criteria be for approving military intervention in a foreign country?

Kerry: Remember, I was one of those troops . . . I would make the judgment based on the security of our country, and that's what I've done in every case . . . Each time, you have to do due diligence. I did that diligence with respect to the vote on the war in Iraq.

O'Reilly: If we ever use military force, it has to be because there's an imminent threat against our country. We have a Department of Defense, not offense, and it's really important that we know before we get into a military situation that we have all of the facts.

Kerry: I did something better than read it [the National Intelligence Estimate], and it really shows Ed's lack of understanding of what due diligence is in Washington. I actually met with the CIA teams. I actually went to the Pentagon and sat down with the secretary of Defense. I sat with the leader of National Intelligence at the Pentagon. I looked at the photographs, I asked them what that building is, what does that represent, how do you know this, how do you know that. . . . The president had promised that we would go to war as a last resort, that we would only do it with a coalition, that we would exhaust the remedies of the United Nations. I accepted that - that was the mistake, believing the Bush administration.

O'Reilly: The quote from [former Kerry consultant] Robert Shrum's book, "And this was where Kerry wanted to get my opinion, would he be a viable general election candidate if he was on the small minority of senators who voted 'no.' " That should not be part of the decision-making process. You have to vote as a United States senator, based on your conscience and on what you believe. That discussion should not even take place."

Kerry: The fact is, with respect to that kind of a vote, you just don't do that based on any political consideration. You can take in the input on it, but that's not how you vote. I voted based on the security interests of our country . . . I knew that by voting the way I voted, I would make it more difficult to even possibly win the nomination. To win the nomination the ideal thing to have done was be the antiwar candidate, which is what Howard Dean was. For months people wrote me off because of that vote. I voted the way I voted because I thought it met the national security interests of our country.