Dean decries Iraq war in return to strategy

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Returning to the issue that vaulted him to prominence -- the war in Iraq -- Howard Dean declared the fighting "unnecessary" yesterday and said of the Iraqi people: "Their living standard is a whole lot worse now than it was before."

The former Vermont governor also made veiled jabs at his rivals and repeatedly criticized the media at stops in vote-rich parts of the state.

Dean spoke about Iraq in response to an audience question at a university women's forum attended by his wife, Judy Dean. In response to a question about avoiding war, Dean said Iraq "was a war that wasn't necessary. You can say that it's great that Saddam [Hussein] is gone, and I'm sure that a lot of Iraqis feel it is great that Saddam is gone, but a lot of them gave their lives, and their living standard is a whole lot worse now than it was before."

He quickly added: "I would never defend Saddam Hussein. He's a horrible person; I'm delighted he's gone. [But] would there not have been a better way to get rid of him in concert with the United Nations?"

In a speech to 350 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Nashua, Dean also took aim at unnamed rivals from Congress, saying: "It's easy to be against the war now; it wasn't so easy a year ago, when 80 percent of the people disagreed with me. Yeah, it was easy to be against No Child Left Behind once those guys from Washington came up and found out what they voted for, what it was doing to local school boards; it wasn't so easy 2 1/2 years ago, when George Bush was ramming it through everybody's throat."

Apparently referring to Senator John F. Kerry, who often is criticized for long-winded answers, Dean said: "People can actually understand me when I talk, because I usually don't talk in 350-word filibuster sentences."

Dean also chastised an array of corporate interests, bemoaning the concentration of media power in corporate hands and lashing out at his recent news coverage.

"You know why we're getting so much flak from the media? Because we don't need them in our campaign," Dean told the AFSCME audience in much the same words as he did the university crowd.

"We raised $40 million from ordinary people like you. . . . We don't owe anybody anything."

Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com.