A rchive Date
[ 19-12-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/12/18/1358910-cp.html
Bush delivers address on Iraq
By BETH GORHAM
December 18, 2005
WASHINGTON (CP) - U.S. President George W. Bush, in a rare address from the Oval Office, insisted Sunday the Iraq war isn't lost as he made a direct appeal to Americans with growing doubts.
"Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day," said Bush, who also acknowledged setbacks and a faulty rationale for invading. "I have heard your disagreement and I know how deeply it is felt. Yet now there are only two options before our country, victory or defeat," he said.
"The need for victory is larger than any president or political party because the security of our people is in the balance. I do not expect you to support everything I do but tonight I have a request: Do not give in to despair and do not give up on this fight for freedom."
Bush, who touted last week's Iraqi elections as a new beginning while admitting it won't end the violence, spoke amid widespread skepticism about his plan to win in Iraq and a national furor over domestic eavesdropping in the war on terror.
The Pentagon hopes to reduce U.S. troops, bolstered to some 160,000 before the parliamentary vote of more than 10 million Iraqis, to 138,000 as a new government takes hold.
Bush noted there are now more than 125 Iraqi combat battalions, with 50 taking the lead in security efforts. More than a dozen military bases are under Iraqi control. As progress is made, "it should require fewer American troops to accomplish our mission." Bush, however, has ruled out a timetable for getting out of Iraq, saying he'll make decisions based on what's happening on the ground.
The Iraq election, he said, is the beginning of a constitutional democracy in the heart of the Middle East and "means that America has an ally of growing strength in the fight against terror." Pulling out now would "signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word," said Bush.
"We would hand Iraq over to enemies who have pledged to attack us and the global terrorist movement would be emboldened and more dangerous than ever before."
It was Bush's first address from the Oval Office since March 2003 when he announced the invasion. Since then, more than 2,100 Americans and some 30,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed and Bush's popularity has plummeted, although his approval rating has improved slightly of late. Most Americans now think the war was a mistake yet oppose an immediate withdrawal.
They'll continue to see the grim results of suicide bombers on the evening news, said Bush, but "the images of chaos that terrorists create for the cameras" obscure progress.
In a recent spate of speeches, he's displayed increasing candour and has accepted responsibility for errors, including faulty intelligence that suggested former dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. And he insists his plan involving security, democracy and reconstruction will eventually allow U.S. soldiers to leave.
Yet recent polls suggest most Americans don't believe him, despite the extensive public relations campaign.
The loss of life has "led some to ask if we are creating more problems than we are solving," Bush said in the 20-minute speech. "The answer depends on your view of the war on terror. If you think the terrorist would become peaceful if only America would stop provoking them, then it might make sense to leave them alone.
"This is not the threat I see . . . These terrorists view the world as a giant battlefield and they seek to attack us wherever they can," said Bush. "We do not create terrorism by fighting the terrorists. We invite terrorism by ignoring them." If it weren't for the Iraq war, "they would be on the offence and headed our way."
Some Democrats who have staunchly supported the war, like Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha, now want the troops out within six months and say most Iraqis want them to go. "We've become the enemy," Murtha said Sunday.
Even Republicans, facing re-election next year, are piling on the pressure to start building benchmarks for pulling some troops. The president's latest attempt to woo wary Americans came after he admitted this weekend he ordered the National Security Agency to secretly tape phone calls and monitor e-mails of Americans and suspected terrorists without getting a court order.
Enraged Democrats cited the security revelation in their refusal last week to renew the USA Patriot Act that gave the president broad new surveillance powers, with warrants, after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The legislation expires Dec. 31. Democratic leaders and some Republicans called for congressional hearings on wiretapping without court approval, something Bush insists is lawful under the American constitution and critical to saving American lives.
Republican Senator John McCain said Sunday he doesn't know why Bush didn't go through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that governs domestic communications. "I know that the leaders of Congress were consulted and that's a very important part of this equation," McCain told ABC. "They didn't raise any objection apparently to . . . a violation of law."
Democratic Senator Carl Levin, appearing on NBC, said Bush has to identify exactly what laws he used to justify the spy program.
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