Bush does terror U-turn
2004-08-31 18:47
Nashville - President George W Bush said on Tuesday "we will win" the war on terror, seeking to quell controversy and Democratic criticism over his earlier remark that a complete victory may not be possible.
In a speech to the national convention of the American Legion, the largest US veterans' organisation, Bush said: "We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win."
That statement differed from Bush's earlier comment, aired on Monday in a pre-taped television interview, that "I don't think you can win" the war on terror.
That had Democrats running for the cameras to criticise Bush for being defeatist and flip-flopping from previous predictions of victory.
"What if President Reagan had said that it may be difficult to win the war against communism?
"What if other presidents had said it'd be difficult to win the war - the Cold War?" Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards said on ABC's "Nightline" programme.
"The war on terrorism is absolutely winnable."
Bush's comment - and the ensuing criticism - took attention away from the carefully crafted image of Bush being broadcast from the Republican national convention in New York, as a decisive wartime commander in chief who is securing America's safety and sure of the course on which he has set the nation.
As Bush continued a pre-convention journey through one closely contested state after another, aides scrambled to clarify the president's remark and contain the story.
And in Tuesday's speech before the American Legion, Bush himself sought to hit back.
"In this different kind of war, we may never sit down at a peace table," Bush said. "But make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win."
Bush also defended his decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Though no weapons of mass destruction have been found, he said Saddam had the capability to make them.
"Knowing what I know today I would have taken the same action," he said. "America and the world are safer with Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison cell."
Bush's war on terror remark wasn't the latest in a string of recent comments in which the president seemed to back-pedal previous certainties.
In a flurry of interviews timed to coincide with this week's convention, Bush acknowledged a "miscalculation" about what the United States would encounter in post-war Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and said the "catastrophic success" of a swift military victory there helped produce the still-potent insurgency.
"First George W Bush said he miscalculated the war in Iraq, then he called it a catastrophic success and blamed the military," Kerry spokesperson Allison Dobson said.
"Now he says we can't win the war on terror.
"Is that what (chief Bush political strategist) Karl Rove means when he calls for steady leadership?"
The campaign professed not to be worried that the president had gone off-message.
- SAPA