MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry on Tuesday slammed President Bush's foreign policy as radical swagger, saying his rush to war with Iraq had left the United States isolated and less safe.

Slipping in the polls and searching for a spark to ignite his White House bid, the Massachusetts senator and decorated Navy veteran formally launched his run for the Democratic nomination in 2004 by wrapping himself in the war-hero mantle.

Standing in front of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown with eight of his Vietnam crew mates, Kerry recalled his days on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta where he won medals for valor and said Bush's America was not what he had fought for.

"I reject George Bush's radical new vision ... that turns its back on the very alliances we helped create and the very principles that have made our nation a model to the world for over two centuries."

Although Kerry voted for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, he lambasted Bush for a "rush to war" with no plan to win the peace. Critics have accused the senator of rationalizing his vote by trying to have it both ways.

"An international policy where we stand almost alone is wrong for America," Kerry said. "If I am president, I will never forget that even a nation as powerful as the United States needs to make some friends in the world."

Kerry, 59, was once considered a Democratic favorite for Bush's job when Americans vote on Nov. 2, 2004. He has the resume, war record, money and, most important, time to reel in his surging rival Howard Dean, a liberal-leaning doctor-turned-presidential hopeful with no foreign policy or national security experience.

But Kerry did not mention Dean or any of his seven other Democratic opponents. Instead, he focused on Bush and two of his top officials, calling Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, arrogant in their dealings with the United Nations.

The only Democratic contender with combat experience, Kerry said he was prepared to use force to fight terrorism but vowed if he were president the United States would never go to war "because we want to."

He said Bush had failed to make the country as safe as it should be after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that pride had prevented him from enlisting international help in protecting U.S. troops in Iraq.

"Being flown to an aircraft carrier and saying 'mission accomplished' doesn't end a war," Kerry said. "The swagger of a president saying 'bring 'em on' will never bring peace."

In May, Bush, who served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War but never went there, donned a flight suit for a dramatic landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier to announce the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

Since that time, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat has surpassed the number killed during the war to topple Saddam Hussein.

On the domestic front, Kerry said he would make the United States independent of Middle East oil within the next decade.

In his first 500 days as president, Kerry also vowed to get back the 3 million jobs lost under Bush and to cut the federal budget deficit in half in four years.

He said Bush had taken the country in "the wrong direction" with a "radical ethic that ratifies and glorifies a creed of greed."

And drawing on his own successful battle with prostate cancer this year, Kerry promised Americans access to the same health care coverage he has as a senator.