Bush: I'm in charge here

2003-10-14 11:49

Washington - US President George W Bush has rejecting criticism that he's lost control of his Iraq policy.

Bush, in a series of interviews on Monday, addressed accusations that his administration misjudged post-war Iraq, does not have an exit strategy and has let its plan get bogged down in turf fights.

"If the people don't think I'm doing my job they'll find somebody else," Bush told Tribune Broadcasting. "That's my attitude."

The president launched a public relations offensive last week, complaining that progress in Iraq has not been adequately reported because of the "filter" of the news media.

Bush sat down for a series of brief interviews with regional television outlets, trying to reach beyond Washington with his message.

Refusing to put a timetable on the US military occupation of Iraq, Bush said, "The definition of when we get out is when there is a free and peaceful Iraq based upon a constitution and elections, and obviously we'd like that to happen as quickly as possible.

"If we were to get out right now it would be a terrible mistake," the president said to Tribune Broadcasting. "A free and peaceful Iraq is in this nation's interest, and plus we've made a commitment to the overwhelming number of Iraqis who do not want Saddam Hussein and-or his thugs to return."

Taking on his critics, Bush said, "They're just wrong about our strategy. We've had a strategy from the beginning. Jerry Bremer (the US civilian administrator in Iraq) is running the strategy and we are making very good progress about the establishment of a free Iraq.

"And the person who is in charge is me," the president said.

Bush also rejected suggestions that he should have waited for more allies to join the United States before invading Iraq.

"I absolutely made the right decision at the right time," he told the Belo television group.

Earlier this month, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was named as head of an Iraq Stabilisation Group to "cut through some of the bureaucracy and the red tape" and assert more control over policy. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld grumbled later that he had not been aware of the move. There also have been well-publicised tensions among Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq.

On Sunday, Lugar urged Bush to take control of his quarrelsome foreign policy team.

"The president has to be president," Lugar said. "That means the president over the vice president, and over these secretaries" of state and defence. Let's get the words right

Asked if Americans should feel deceived about his rationale for the war because no weapons of mass destruction have been found in the six months since major fighting ended, Bush told Tribune Broadcasting, "Let's get the words right. I said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and he used them. Which he did. And second I said he was a gathering threat. And that's an important distinction."

- AP