Five years on, Bush again talks of Iraq victory

Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:28pm EDT
By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he had no regrets about the unpopular war in Iraq despite the "high cost in lives and treasure" and declared that the United States was on track for victory.

Marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion with a touch of the swagger he showed early in the war, Bush said in a speech at the Pentagon, "The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable."

With less than 11 months left in office and his approval ratings near the lows of his presidency, Bush is trying to shore up support for the Iraq campaign, which has damaged U.S. credibility abroad and is sure to define his legacy.

But he faced the challenge of winning back the attention of war-weary Americans more preoccupied with mounting economic troubles and increasingly focused on the race to pick his successor in the November election.

Bush's Democratic critics used the anniversary to press accusations that the Republican president launched the invasion based on faulty intelligence, mismanaged the war and failed to put together an exit strategy.

"Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it," Bush told an audience of top military officers and Pentagon employees.

"The answers are clear to me: Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win," he said.

Rejecting calls from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for a timetable for early withdrawal, Bush touted security gains from a troop buildup or "surge" he ordered last year. He insisted that "retreat" would embolden al Qaeda and Iran and put the United States at risk.

"The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around -- it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror," Bush said, hailing increased cooperation of Iraqi Sunnis in fighting al Qaeda.

Such an assertion could come back to haunt Bush if the situation deteriorates. War critics have roundly mocked Bush for his premature declaration in May 2003 that "major combat operations" in Iraq were over as he stood on the USS Abraham Lincoln under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished."

UPBEAT BUT TEMPERED ASSESSMENT

Bush stopped short of promising outright victory, as he had earlier before sectarian violence swept Iraq last year. "No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary," he said.

The war has cost the United States $500 billion. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and millions displaced. Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed, as well as 175 British troops and 134 from other countries.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll showed nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the war was not worth waging.

Told about the poll in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Vice President Dick Cheney, in Oman after a visit to Iraq, said dismissively: "So?"

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "The cost to our national security has been immense -- our military is stretched thin and our reputation in the world is damaged."

Scattered anti-war protests were staged in U.S. cities. In Washington, 32 people were arrested for blocking entry to the Internal Revenue Service and a few dozen noisy demonstrators shouted antiwar slogans outside the White House gates.

Bush, who had strong public support after the al Qaeda attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, has long called Iraq as a central front against Islamic extremists. But Democrats say his administration has been distracted from what they see as a more important struggle in Afghanistan.

In his speech, Bush hailed the increased role of Iraqi Sunnis in the fight against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda as the "first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his murderous network."

Absent from Bush's speech was any mention of the Iraqi government's record on sectarian reconciliation, an area in which there has been only halting progress.

Violence across Iraq has dropped 60 percent since 30,000 extra U.S. troops became fully deployed in June. But a recent spate of attacks showed that Iraq was far from safe.

Bush's speech was his second in lead-up to the next status report Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus will give to Congress in early April. The military will complete the withdrawal of about 20,000 troops by July, leaving about 140,000 in Iraq.

Bush reiterated any decision on bringing more troops home would depend on recommendations from commanders on the ground.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)



Five years on, Bush vows victory in Iraq
19/03/2008 21h34

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday defended the launch of the war against Iraq five years ago, vowing no retreat as he promised US forces would triumph over Iraqi insurgents.

"Five years into this battle, there's an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me," Bush said at the Pentagon.

"Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win," he maintained, referring to the late Iraqi dictator.

As he spoke, scores of protestors gathered just a few blocks away in Washington calling for an end to the war in which nearly 4,000 US soldiers have died along with tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

Bush launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at 21:30 pm on March 19, 2003 in the United States, when it was already 5:30 am in Baghdad on March 20, with a bombing blitz dubbed "shock and awe" by the American military.

Five years on, with only 10 months left in office, and his popularity at record lows, Bush's two terms in office have been defined and overshadowed by the conflict.

Iraqi and US forces still face daily attacks from insurgent gangs and Islamist militants, and the fighting between armed factions from both sides of Iraq's Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide rages on.

Bush signalled there would be no swift end to his policy, with about 158,000 US troops currently in Iraq fighting a bloody insurgency in what has become America's second longest war after Vietnam.
"We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast. The terrorists and extremists step in," the president warned.

"They fill vacuums, establish safe havens, and use them to spread chaos and carnage," he said.

By the most conservative tally, the war in Iraq has already cost the United States more than 400 billion dollars and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has argued the total bill could surpass three trillion dollars.

In his speech, Bush acknowledged the war has "come at a high cost in lives and treasure."

"There's still hard work to be done in Iraq. The gains we've made are fragile and reversible, but on this anniversary, the American people should know that since the surge began, the level of violence is significantly down, civilian deaths are down, sectarian killings are down," Bush said.

But America's elusive public enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al-Qaeda terror network, was set to taunt the Bush administration again with reports Wednesday that he was to post a new message coinciding with the anniversary of the war.

Bin Laden has evaded capture by US forces since 2001 when Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday that despite the perils still facing his country, the war had ended Saddam's brutal rule of torture.

"The brutal regime of the dictator fell ... the regime that ruled Iraq for decades, the decades of darkness. The decades that were of tyranny," he said in a statement.

A new era had begun, he said, adding: "the walk on this new path began five years ago but it faces huge difficulties. There is violence and terrorism, and corruption has become a dangerous disease."

Five years on, the war remains deeply unpopular in the United States, even though many Americans are increasingly more preoccupied with the state of the nation's ailing economy than the conflict.

And the war has been one of the top issues on the campaign trail as Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight to be the party's nominee in the November elections to stand against Republican John McCain.

Both Obama and Clinton have pledged to end the war, against McCain's steadfast support of the Bush administration.

Anti-war rallies were held in Washington, New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco on Wednesday.

"This war needs to end and it needs to end now," Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, told AFP. "I think people are looking for new ways to express their opposition."



イラク戦争開戦から5年、ブッシュ大統領勝利誓う
2008年03月20日 06:51　発信地:ワシントンD.C./米国

【3月20日 AFP】イラク戦争開戦から5年目を迎えるにあたり、ジョージ・W・ブッシュ（George W. Bush）米大統領は19日、国防総省で演説を行い、イラク戦争開戦の正当性を主張した。さらに、この戦争に勝利することをあらためて強調し、撤退の意思がないことを明言した。

　ブッシュ大統領は、「開戦から5年がたち、この戦争を戦い、勝利する価値はあるのか、勝利することは可能かという議論があるのは理解できる。だが、答えは明白だ」と語った。

　また、サダム・フセイン元大統領にも言及し、「フセイン大統領を追放したのは正しいことだった、そして、この戦争は米国が勝利しなければならない、またそれが可能な戦いだ」と述べた。

　　ブッシュ大統領は、約15万8000人に上っているイラク駐留米軍の早期撤退はないことを示唆した。イラク戦争は、ベトナム戦争以降、2番目に長い戦争となっている。

　ブッシュ大統領の演説中、会場から数ブロック先にはイラク戦争に抗議する多数の人々が集まり、同戦争の終結を求めた。イラク戦争では、米軍兵士4000人とイラク市民数万人が死亡している。

　ブッシュ大統領は2003年3月19日、米国時間午後9時30分（イラク時間20日午前5時30分）、米軍が「衝撃と恐怖（shock and awe）」と命名した爆撃作戦を口火に、「イラクの自由作戦（Operation Iraqi Freedom）」を開始した。

　イラクでは現在も、米軍やイラク軍が、武装勢力やイスラム過激派からの攻撃に日々さらされている。さらに、イスラム教のシーア（Shiite）・スンニ（Sunni）両派の宗派対立も依然として続いている。(c)AFP/Laurent Lozano