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Skeptics confront Bush with questions

By wire services
Published March 21, 2006

CLEVELAND - Hoping to shore up support for the Iraq war, President Bush opened himself to questions at a rare public forum Monday and got an earful from skeptics who questioned his motives and his credibility.

Bush said he could "understand people being disheartened" but appealed to Americans to look beyond the bloodshed and see signs of progress.

Speaking to the City Club of Cleveland, Bush acknowledged that many Americans don't share his confidence that Iraq can become a stable democracy. The freewheeling question-and-answer session that followed his prepared remarks gave skeptics a chance to confront the president directly.

Bush seemed taken aback when the first questioner asked him whether he views the conflict in biblical terms, as an apocalyptic struggle for the Middle East. Some of the president's critics have speculated that his Christianity and a wish to protect the Holy Land are behind his desire to transform the Middle East.

"The answer is, I haven't really thought of it that way," he replied. "First I've heard of that, by the way. I guess I'm more of a practical fellow."

Bush said his primary concern was protecting Americans from another terrorist attack.

The president was asked why he deemed Iraq - which turned out not to have weapons of mass destruction - as enough of a threat three years ago to launch an invasion, in contrast to nuclear-ambitious Iran today.

"One difference was that, in Iraq, there was a series of unanimous (U.N. Security Council) resolutions that basically held the Iraqi government to account, which Saddam Hussein ignored," Bush said. Still, he said Iran was a concern, on the question of nuclear weapons and on its role in Iraq.

As for weapons of mass destruction, the president said the incorrect assumptions about Iraq's arsenal were an international intelligence failure.

"I asked that very same question: Where'd we go wrong on intelligence?" he said. "The credibility of our country is very important. I agree with you."

The City Club, a 94-year-old civic organization, bills itself as a "citadel for free speech" and insists that guest speakers take questions. The White House made no attempt to screen either the audience or the questions, said spokesman Scott McClellan.

Despite the obvious skepticism of some audience members, the president appeared to win over the crowd with his friendly banter and willingness to engage critics.

"He's got to get out and do more of this," retired radiologist Ted Castele said after the 90-minute session. "There are a lot of concerns, serious concerns."

The president devoted most of his speech to declaring progress in Iraq, and cited the long campaign to rid the northern city of Tal Afar of terrorists as an example. Yet he also conceded:

"I wish I could tell you that the progress made in Tal Afar is the same in every part of Iraq. It is not." But "the example of Tal Afar gives me confidence in our strategy," he said.

As the president delivered the latest installment in an upbeat defense of his Iraq policy, opponents used the day after the third anniversary of the invasion to step up their criticism.

Three potential 2008 presidential candidates - Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska - offered critical assessments at the International Association of Firefighters' legislative conference in Washington.

Biden said it was time for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to "be told to go home" and for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff "be given his walking papers."

Richardson said U.S. involvement in Iraq had been "badly mismanaged by the administration."

Hagel said many of the predictions and promises made by the administration have fallen short, such as that oil revenues would pay for the war and the conflict would be short. He also pointed to Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion in May that the insurgency was in its "last throes."

"There's been a credibility erosion for three years," Hagel said.

Information from the Associated Press and Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.

[Last modified March 21, 2006, 02:30:40]