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Critics scoff at Bush bravado
28/10/2003 07:56 - (SA)
Washington - Despite two days of audacious attacks, President George W Bush insists the United States is making progress in Iraq and said American successes are actually spurring the violence by making insurgents more desperate.
But defence officials said the synchronised suicide bombings also suggested a new level of co-ordination by attackers, and Democrats scoffed at the president's argument, levelling some of their sharpest criticism yet.
"Does the president really believe that suicide bombers are willing to strap explosives to their bodies because we're restoring electricity and creating jobs for Iraqis?" said Senator John Kerry, a White House candidate. "Is the president arguing that the better things get in Iraq, the more dangerous it will become for American soldiers?"
The attacks in Baghdad on Monday, killing 34 people and wounding more than 200, complicated the White House effort to paint Iraq as a country where life is returning to normal. The bombings plunged parts of the capital into chaos, leaving scenes of broken, bloody bodies and twisted, burning automobiles.
Since Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq in May, 113 US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire, and about 1 675 have been injured. American forces sustain an average of 26 attacks a day.
The president, meeting with US Iraqi administrator Paul Bremer in the Oval Office to discuss the security situation, pledged to hunt down the "cold-blooded killers, terrorists" who are conducting the attacks.
They just want to kill
"They don't care who they kill. They just want to kill," Bush told reporters.
"The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity is available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become," Bush said.
"They can't stand the thought of a free society. They hate freedom. They love terror. They love to try to create fear and chaos," Bush said.
Bremer added that "a lot of wonderful things have happened" in Iraq: The country has a functioning cabinet, all schools and hospitals are open and electricity has returned to pre-war levels.
"We'll have rough days," Bremer said. "But the overall thrust is in the right direction."
"I just don't understand the president's logic - that because there is more violence and more deaths, things are going well. In my book, that means things are worse," said Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean.
Insulting our troops
Said Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran: "This sounds frighteningly like the 'light at the end of the tunnel' rhetoric of Vietnam. Every day, the White House's excuses become more insulting to our troops on the ground."
Senator Joe Lieberman said in New Hampshire that he was "startled" by Bush's words. "With all respect, it makes no sense: This is a tragedy that occurred today, and it's amid growing signs of dangerous disorder in Iraq."
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