US Democrat presidential nominee Mr John Kerry today planned to attack Present George W. Bush's plan to withdraw 70,000 American troops from Europe and Asia as a threat to national security that could blunt the war on terror, campaign aides said.
Mr Kerry will say the military realignment plan sent the wrong message to countries like North Korea, where the United States has been working to to deter Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs, the aides said on condition of anonymity.
He will make the remarks in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Ohio - a political battleground in the November 2nd presidential election. Mr Bush addressed the same group on Monday, when he announced plans to move the 70,000 troops in a shift of focus from Cold War enemies Russia and China.
Mr Bush said the pullback would create a more flexible military, improve the lives of military and better position the United States to fight emerging threats. The plan, to be implemented over 10 years, would not affect the 140,000 US troops now deployed in Iraq.
Mr Kerry will argue the plan "could impair the nation's security, particularly in addressing North Korea's nuclear program and in fighting the war on terror," according to the aides, who provided excerpts from his speech.
There are more than 100,000 American service personnel in Europe, about 70,000 of them in Germany. Another 100,000 are in the Asia-Pacific region, the majority in South Korea and Japan.
The Kerry campaign has attacked the redeployment plan as politically motivated and said it would undermine the US relationship with NATO.
In his speech to the VFW, Mr Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War Navy lieutenant, will dispute Mr Bush's claim to be "getting things done" for US veterans, the second time in recent weeks he has dismissed one of the Republican incumbent's campaign slogans.