'I am responsible for Iraq war'

2005-12-14 20:22

Washington - President George W Bush accepted responsibility on Wednesday for going to war with faulty intelligence, but firmly defended a decision that has deeply divided the country. "We cannot and will not leave Iraq until victory is achieved."

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq," Bush told a foreign policy forum on the eve of elections to establish Iraq's first permanent, democratically elected government.

"And I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we're doing just that," Bush said.

The president said Thursday's parliamentary elections in Iraq are a watershed moment that will inspire democracy across the Middle East. But with public opinion still running against his mission, Bush continues to defend his decision to go to war nearly three years ago.

"We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of brutal dictator," Bush said. "It is to leave a free and democratic Iraq in his place.

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," Bush told the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.

Possibility of US troops withdrawing

As he usually does, Bush asserted that the Iraq of the future, with a functioning democracy and thriving economy, would be a model for other nations in the turbulent Middle East. But he added a specific reference to the inspiration that a free Iraq could provide to reformers in the region's two governments most hostile to the United States - Syria and Iran.

The president is banking on a successful election to signal that his war plan is working. If the voting establishes a successful government, it eventually could lead to the withdrawal of United States forces.

Bush could use some more good news in Iraq. With the violence showing no sign of waning, most Americans are unhappy with his handling of the war and some lawmakers are questioning how long the troops should stay.

In a news conference before Bush's speech on Wednesday, senate Minority leader Harry Reid said: "Tomorrow's elections must signal a turning point in the relationship between America and Iraq." After the elections, he said: "Iraq must get its political house in order and get the security forces it needs to defend itself."

Fighting negative images of war

Bush has been pushing back aggressively against the negative image of his war mission with a series of four speeches in recent weeks. Thursday was the last in the series.

Answering critics who have said he had offered no clear definition of victory in Iraq, Bush offered a succinct summation.

"Victory will be achieved by meeting certain objectives: when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can protect their own people, and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot attacks against our country," he said. "These objectives, not timetables set by politicians in Washington, will drive our force levels in Iraq."

In the senate, 40 Democrats and one independent signed a letter to Bush on Wednesday in which they urged him to be more frank with Iraqis and the American public.

- AP