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Bush: Fight in Iraq, or here

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 1, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY - President Bush stood before graying soldiers of wars past on Thursday and framed America's national security options this way: stay in Iraq and wage a difficult war that will cost the lives of more U.S. troops or pull out and live under a growing threat of terrorism at home.

"If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities," the president said during a speech that often drew thunderous applause from a crowd of veterans at the annual American Legion convention.

The war against Islamic militants, the president said, is much like last century's fight against Nazis and communists.

"The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq," Bush said in the first in a series of congressional election-year speeches defending his Iraq policy.

Bush said the stakes are too high to consider any option but total victory. The president said he understands the stances of some of his critics, but said they are naive about the enemies America faces.

"Many of these folks are sincere and they're patriotic, but they ... could not be more wrong," Bush said. "Some politicians look at our efforts in Iraq and see a diversion from the war on terror. That would come as news to Osama bin Laden, who proclaimed that the 'third world war is raging' in Iraq."

Bush said if the U.S. pulls its troops from Iraq, Saddam Hussein sympathizers, groups backed by Iran and al-Qaida terrorists from across the world would use the country as a base of operation.

"They would have a new sanctuary to recruit and train terrorists at the heart of the Middle East, with huge oil riches to fund their ambitions," the president said. "And we know exactly where those ambitions lead."

Bush did not use the term "Islamic fascists" Thursday, as he had recently. But he did employ similar language. "As veterans, you have seen this kind of enemy before," he said. "They're successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century, and history shows what the outcome will be."

Ultimately, he said, the outcome will be "victory for the cause of freedom and liberty."

The president's 40-minute address, coming on the heels of similar speeches by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, underscored the White House's determination to make the Iraq war a key issue in the November elections as Republicans try to keep control of Congress.

Bush's series of speeches continues Tuesday, with remarks in Washington before the Military Officers Association of America and members of the diplomatic corps. It is to continue through Sept. 19, when the president is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Bush will mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by visiting all three sites where terrorists crashed hijacked planes, in Washington, Pennsylvania and New York.

As Bush spoke to the American Legion group, a crowd of antiwar protesters demonstrated in downtown Salt Lake City, and Democrats accused Bush of pursuing "failed policies" that have weakened the war on terrorism.

"No matter how many speeches the president gives, the truth is that his failed policies have taken the country in a dangerous direction," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said. "It is time for a new direction."

But American Legion member Tom Schottenbauer of St. Louis Park, Minn., who was in the audience for Bush's speech, said the president was exactly right in his warnings.

"If there are going to be roadside bombs blowing up, I'd rather have them blow up in Iraq than in the United States," Schottenbauer said.

[Last modified September 6, 2006, 06:42:50]