Hardrock69
10-06-2005, 12:26 PM
Thursday, October 6, 2005; Posted: 11:43 a.m. EDT (15:43 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush, in a high-profile address on Thursday, said the global fight against terrorism must continue in Iraq because it is where terrorists are centering their movement to "intimidate the whole world."
"If U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq, Bush said, insurgents would "use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against nonradical Muslim governments."
Bush made his remarks at a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington, and emphasized that the worldwide terror movement should not be appeased.
"We're not facing a set of grievances" that can be negotiated, Bush said.
"We're facing a radical ideology with an unalterable objective, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the whole world," he said.
Bush indicated that the public is unaware of many anti-terrorism victories. He said the United States and its allies have disrupted 10 al Qaeda terrorism plots since September 11, 2001, including three inside the United States.
Critics have charged that war in Iraq has become a breeding ground for terror and opinion polls have found U.S. public support for the war waning since spring.
But Bush argued the war in Iraq did not cause hatred of the United States among radical Muslims or global terror attacks, but rather is an "excuse" to further the goal of creating an Islamic state across the Mideast.
"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia," Bush said.
"The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue," Bush said. "And it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse."
"No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no conscience, bribe or act of appeasement will change or limit their plans for murder."
On Wednesday, Bush met with top military advisers at the White House, telling reporters afterward that U.S. and Iraqi troops are on the offensive against insurgents who want to disrupt Iraq's October 15 vote on a new constitution.
He said about 3,000 Iraqi troops had done "a fine job" in recent combat alongside American units in western Iraq.
"Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We've got troops embedded with them, and that's an important part of the training mission," he said.
Bush has tried repeatedly to link Iraq to the anti-terror campaign launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Though the 9/11 commission found no operational relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq before the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, critics say the insurgency against U.S. troops that followed Saddam's overthrow has drawn terrorists into Iraq to fight Americans.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have carried out operations in western Iraq in recent weeks aimed at disrupting insurgent control in the region and targeting al Qaeda in Iraq, the group led by wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
One recent raid resulted in the terror group's No. 2 operative being killed, U.S. officials have said.
Polls show support waning
Polls have found U.S. public support for the Iraq war waning since spring, despite speeches by the president in June and September that White House aides hoped would reverse the trend.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in late September found that 59 percent of people surveyed considered the 2003 invasion a mistake, 63 percent said they wanted to see some or all U.S. troops withdrawn, and only 32 percent approved of Bush's handling of the conflict.
But Democrats in the Senate said Wednesday that Bush needs to outline a plan for winning the now two-year-old war.
"It's time the president tells us how he plans on getting us out of the hole he's dug us so deeply into. And just to stop digging, as the old saying goes, is not enough," said Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The senator from Delaware urged Bush to convene a summit of Iraq's neighbors to hammer out a broader peace for the region, as the United States did in Afghanistan and during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Elections for permanent government
Registered Iraqi voters will head to the polls on October 15 to vote on whether to accept a new constitution.
Sunni Arabs, who are the minority in Iraq but who dominated during Saddam Hussein's regime, could defeat the charter if they get a two-thirds "no" vote in any three provinces -- a possibility that could occur in four of Iraq's 18 provinces.
The majority of Shiites and Kurds appear to favor the constitution.
The document's approval would lead to elections for a permanent government. But if rejected, elections for a new transitional government would be held and the process of drafting a national charter would start over.
Washington hopes approval of the constitution would deal a blow to the bloody insurgency.
Bush met Wednesday with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of the effort to train and equip Iraqi soldiers.
Petraeus said later that only one Iraqi battalion -- about 750 troops -- is capable of operating independent of coalition support.
But he said about 35 battalions are capable of taking the lead in operations with U.S. troops, and many of those second-tier units have assumed control over cities in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad.
Even third-tier troops are capable of "thickening" the capabilities of coalition forces by manning checkpoints and serving as guides or interpreters for U.S. troops, Petraeus told reporters at the Pentagon after his meeting with Bush.
"The Iraqis are in this fight. They are fighting and dying for their country, and they are fighting incredibly well," Petraeus said.
Asked whether a significant number of U.S. troops could be withdrawn from Iraq in 2006, as some top officers have suggested, he said, "I wouldn't venture that."
"This is going to be very conditions-based," he said, adding that the political development of Iraq's government is "very, very important" to supporting the fledgling Iraqi army.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush, in a high-profile address on Thursday, said the global fight against terrorism must continue in Iraq because it is where terrorists are centering their movement to "intimidate the whole world."
"If U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq, Bush said, insurgents would "use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against nonradical Muslim governments."
Bush made his remarks at a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington, and emphasized that the worldwide terror movement should not be appeased.
"We're not facing a set of grievances" that can be negotiated, Bush said.
"We're facing a radical ideology with an unalterable objective, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the whole world," he said.
Bush indicated that the public is unaware of many anti-terrorism victories. He said the United States and its allies have disrupted 10 al Qaeda terrorism plots since September 11, 2001, including three inside the United States.
Critics have charged that war in Iraq has become a breeding ground for terror and opinion polls have found U.S. public support for the war waning since spring.
But Bush argued the war in Iraq did not cause hatred of the United States among radical Muslims or global terror attacks, but rather is an "excuse" to further the goal of creating an Islamic state across the Mideast.
"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia," Bush said.
"The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue," Bush said. "And it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse."
"No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no conscience, bribe or act of appeasement will change or limit their plans for murder."
On Wednesday, Bush met with top military advisers at the White House, telling reporters afterward that U.S. and Iraqi troops are on the offensive against insurgents who want to disrupt Iraq's October 15 vote on a new constitution.
He said about 3,000 Iraqi troops had done "a fine job" in recent combat alongside American units in western Iraq.
"Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We've got troops embedded with them, and that's an important part of the training mission," he said.
Bush has tried repeatedly to link Iraq to the anti-terror campaign launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Though the 9/11 commission found no operational relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq before the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, critics say the insurgency against U.S. troops that followed Saddam's overthrow has drawn terrorists into Iraq to fight Americans.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have carried out operations in western Iraq in recent weeks aimed at disrupting insurgent control in the region and targeting al Qaeda in Iraq, the group led by wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
One recent raid resulted in the terror group's No. 2 operative being killed, U.S. officials have said.
Polls show support waning
Polls have found U.S. public support for the Iraq war waning since spring, despite speeches by the president in June and September that White House aides hoped would reverse the trend.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in late September found that 59 percent of people surveyed considered the 2003 invasion a mistake, 63 percent said they wanted to see some or all U.S. troops withdrawn, and only 32 percent approved of Bush's handling of the conflict.
But Democrats in the Senate said Wednesday that Bush needs to outline a plan for winning the now two-year-old war.
"It's time the president tells us how he plans on getting us out of the hole he's dug us so deeply into. And just to stop digging, as the old saying goes, is not enough," said Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The senator from Delaware urged Bush to convene a summit of Iraq's neighbors to hammer out a broader peace for the region, as the United States did in Afghanistan and during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Elections for permanent government
Registered Iraqi voters will head to the polls on October 15 to vote on whether to accept a new constitution.
Sunni Arabs, who are the minority in Iraq but who dominated during Saddam Hussein's regime, could defeat the charter if they get a two-thirds "no" vote in any three provinces -- a possibility that could occur in four of Iraq's 18 provinces.
The majority of Shiites and Kurds appear to favor the constitution.
The document's approval would lead to elections for a permanent government. But if rejected, elections for a new transitional government would be held and the process of drafting a national charter would start over.
Washington hopes approval of the constitution would deal a blow to the bloody insurgency.
Bush met Wednesday with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of the effort to train and equip Iraqi soldiers.
Petraeus said later that only one Iraqi battalion -- about 750 troops -- is capable of operating independent of coalition support.
But he said about 35 battalions are capable of taking the lead in operations with U.S. troops, and many of those second-tier units have assumed control over cities in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad.
Even third-tier troops are capable of "thickening" the capabilities of coalition forces by manning checkpoints and serving as guides or interpreters for U.S. troops, Petraeus told reporters at the Pentagon after his meeting with Bush.
"The Iraqis are in this fight. They are fighting and dying for their country, and they are fighting incredibly well," Petraeus said.
Asked whether a significant number of U.S. troops could be withdrawn from Iraq in 2006, as some top officers have suggested, he said, "I wouldn't venture that."
"This is going to be very conditions-based," he said, adding that the political development of Iraq's government is "very, very important" to supporting the fledgling Iraqi army.