sonyking
03-20-2006, 04:08 PM
Read this article.Bush is defending iraqs optimsim.For three
years now.
With the Iraq conflict entering its fourth year, US President George W. Bush took aim at critics who say his upbeat forecasts for that country are out of touch with the bloody reality.
With the Iraq conflict entering its fourth year, US President George W. Bush took aim at critics who say his upbeat forecasts for that country are out of touch with the bloody reality.
In the second of a series of speeches aimed at reversing the steep decline in US support for the war, Bush unapologetically defended his decision to remove Saddam Hussein by force as "the right decision."
But he acknowledged that the failure to find the unconventional weapons at the core of the public case for invading had hurt US credibility and said he had pushed reforms of the US intelligence community to restore eroded trust.
"The Iranian issue is a classic case where we've got to make sure that when we speak there's credibility," Bush said, adding that he hoped to resolve the tense standoff over Tehran's nuclear programs "diplomatically."
Much of his speech focused on defending his stay-the-course strategy and on reaching out to Americans who worry that his optimism about Iraq's future is unjustified amid grim predictions that the country is sliding into civil war.
"The situation on the ground remains tense. In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," he said.
"Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't," he said.
In an attempt to answer them, Bush cited progress in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, where US-led forces have carried out repeated campaigns to break the hold of terrorist network Al-Qaeda and other insurgents in the city.
Once a stronghold for extremists, Tal Afar is now "a free city that gives reason for hope for a free Iraq," he said, citing the city of roughly 200,000 near the Syrian border as a success story for US counter-insurgency tactics.
In the past, US-led forces would clear a city like Tal Afar of extremists, but would move on, letting them regroup and terrorize local populations who learned to be wary of promises of a safer life, the president said.
US-led forces, backed by increasingly capable Iraqi security, now clear cities, hold them militarily, and build institutions and infrastructure to improve the lives of the residents, he explained.
Bush said progress "is not easy to capture in a short clip on the evening news" and "will never be as dramatic" as roadside bombs or other signs of a conflict that has killed more than 2,300 US soldiers.
"I wish I could tell you that the progress made in Tal Afar is the same in every single part of Iraq. It's not," he said, but "the example of Tal Afar gives me confidence in our strategy."
Bush has drawn fire in the past for offering upbeat, even rosy, assessments of the situation in Iraq, including the May 1, 2003 victory speech he gave in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner.
In several more recent speeches, in late 2005 and early 2006, he has defended the flawed case for war but acknowledged "mistakes" in the post-invasion period while denying that the country is in the grips of civil war.
Some observers have challenged that assessment, with Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, a likely 2008 White House contender, calling the situation there "low-grade civil war" and urging Bush to seek more international help.
And former Iraq premier Iyad Allawi told the BBC on Sunday that an average of 50-60 Iraqis were being killed each day, adding:"If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
Bush's trip to the vote-rich state of Ohio came six months before November legislative elections in which his Republicans fear voter backlash over the war and other issues may cost them control of the US Congress.
years now.
With the Iraq conflict entering its fourth year, US President George W. Bush took aim at critics who say his upbeat forecasts for that country are out of touch with the bloody reality.
With the Iraq conflict entering its fourth year, US President George W. Bush took aim at critics who say his upbeat forecasts for that country are out of touch with the bloody reality.
In the second of a series of speeches aimed at reversing the steep decline in US support for the war, Bush unapologetically defended his decision to remove Saddam Hussein by force as "the right decision."
But he acknowledged that the failure to find the unconventional weapons at the core of the public case for invading had hurt US credibility and said he had pushed reforms of the US intelligence community to restore eroded trust.
"The Iranian issue is a classic case where we've got to make sure that when we speak there's credibility," Bush said, adding that he hoped to resolve the tense standoff over Tehran's nuclear programs "diplomatically."
Much of his speech focused on defending his stay-the-course strategy and on reaching out to Americans who worry that his optimism about Iraq's future is unjustified amid grim predictions that the country is sliding into civil war.
"The situation on the ground remains tense. In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," he said.
"Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't," he said.
In an attempt to answer them, Bush cited progress in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, where US-led forces have carried out repeated campaigns to break the hold of terrorist network Al-Qaeda and other insurgents in the city.
Once a stronghold for extremists, Tal Afar is now "a free city that gives reason for hope for a free Iraq," he said, citing the city of roughly 200,000 near the Syrian border as a success story for US counter-insurgency tactics.
In the past, US-led forces would clear a city like Tal Afar of extremists, but would move on, letting them regroup and terrorize local populations who learned to be wary of promises of a safer life, the president said.
US-led forces, backed by increasingly capable Iraqi security, now clear cities, hold them militarily, and build institutions and infrastructure to improve the lives of the residents, he explained.
Bush said progress "is not easy to capture in a short clip on the evening news" and "will never be as dramatic" as roadside bombs or other signs of a conflict that has killed more than 2,300 US soldiers.
"I wish I could tell you that the progress made in Tal Afar is the same in every single part of Iraq. It's not," he said, but "the example of Tal Afar gives me confidence in our strategy."
Bush has drawn fire in the past for offering upbeat, even rosy, assessments of the situation in Iraq, including the May 1, 2003 victory speech he gave in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner.
In several more recent speeches, in late 2005 and early 2006, he has defended the flawed case for war but acknowledged "mistakes" in the post-invasion period while denying that the country is in the grips of civil war.
Some observers have challenged that assessment, with Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, a likely 2008 White House contender, calling the situation there "low-grade civil war" and urging Bush to seek more international help.
And former Iraq premier Iyad Allawi told the BBC on Sunday that an average of 50-60 Iraqis were being killed each day, adding:"If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
Bush's trip to the vote-rich state of Ohio came six months before November legislative elections in which his Republicans fear voter backlash over the war and other issues may cost them control of the US Congress.