BANGOR – Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and a group of military mothers Monday offered some of the harshest criticism to date of the Bush administration and its rationale for invading Iraq, calling the conflict a “war of choice, not necessity.”

“But getting it right is a necessity, not a choice,” Albright then told a group of about 80 people gathered at Husson College in the morning to hear the former Clinton Cabinet official speak on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry.

Albright, waylaid by difficulties with her plane, addressed the gathering by telephone. She said Bush, in choosing to invade Iraq without first building a strong coalition, shattered America’s traditional alliances by essentially equating those nations with “Lilliputians trying to tie down Gulliver.”

While Albright was unable to attend in person, a group of military mothers and wives from around the country did stop at the event in Bangor, the heart of Maine’s closely contested northern congressional district.

The group, Military Moms with a Mission, is touring 50 cities in 15 battleground states in support of the Democratic contender, whom they believe would be a preferable alternative to a Bush administration they accused of misleading the American people.

“They continue to lie every single day,” said Nita Martin, one of five of the women who appeared in Bangor and the mother of two sons, both Marines. One served in Iraq and the other is still stationed there.

Bush’s Iraq policy has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks amid continuing violence and an acknowledgment from the president that the country had no weapons of mass destruction – a primary reason cited for the invasion.

Martin, of Wallingford, Pa., angrily told the group how her 27-year-old son, Nathan, believing he was ill-equipped for his duty in the Iraqi desert, bought his own helmet and boots off the Internet.

Military families supporting Bush held their own events Monday in Bangor and Portland to counter the Albright and Military Moms appearances.

Bush backers are quick to note that when given the chance, Kerry opposed an $87 billion supplemental budget that would have helped equip the soldiers. But Kerry backers say he supported an alternative that would have funded the operation by repealing some of the Bush tax cuts.

Among the Kerry critics Monday was Rebecca Davis of Orrington, who has three sons on active duty – two in the Army, one in the Marines.

“It’s an illogical argument,” Davis said of attempts to reconcile Kerry’s vote with his complaints about inadequate equipment.

Davis, in a telephone interview while en route from Portland to Bangor, also faulted critics of the president’s postwar strategy.

“The plan for peace has been given over and over again. It’s about training the Iraqis to take care of their own security,” Davis said. “I can’t see how that’s not a plan.”

As part of the Albright event, Gwen Walz of Mantanko, Minn., emphatically chastised Bush for not having a plan to win the peace, which she said could best be reached through international efforts. In response to critics of the military mothers group, Walz defended its members’ patriotism.

“It is a patriotic thing to ask questions,” said Walz, who, like the other speakers, received a standing ovation after her speech. “Ask the hard questions and demand the answers.”