Waging war in Iraq pits the United States against two of its gravest threats — al-Qaeda and Iran — U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday, adding that the costs are modest compared with previous conflicts.
"It is clear that we're on the right track," Mr. Bush said, but his speech at the White House made it apparent he will leave office with the war unfinished and as many at 140,000 U.S. troops still fighting nearly six years after he ordered the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.
Mr. Bush warned that if the United States is defeated in Iraq then "the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda in Pakistan would grow in confidence and boldness. And violent extremists around the world would draw the same dangerous lesson they did from our retreats in Somalia and Vietnam."
Senator Edward Kennedy, among the most prominent and earliest critics of the war in Iraq, said, "It's abundantly clear that President Bush is simply trying to run out the clock and hand off the mess to the next president."
The President, meanwhile, issued another threat to Iran, making clear he regards the Islamic republic as a threat to the United States alongside al-Qaeda, the Islamist extremist group headed by fugitive Osama bin Laden.
"Iraq is the convergence point for two of the greatest threats to America in this new century: al-Qaeda and Iran," Mr. Bush said.
During two days of congressional hearings, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said repeatedly that Iran continues to arm and support anti-American insurgents in Iraq.
"The regime in Tehran also has a choice to make: They can live in peace with its neighbour, enjoy strong economic and cultural and religious ties; or it can continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups, which are terrorizing the Iraqi people," Mr. Bush said.
"If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners," he added.As expected, the President also announced in his speech that combat tours for regular army units — currently 15 months — would be reduced to one year for brigades deploying next fall and beyond. Even then, U.S. soldiers, many on their third or even fourth combat tour, face deployments twice as long as those of Canadian troops in Afghanistan and most other allied soldiers.
Democrats, including the two rivals battling to succeed Mr. Bush in the Oval Office, were quick to denounce his speech.
"This war should be coming to an end, [but] it's estimated that we will have at least 140,000 troops there until the end of the year. In other words, there is no end in sight under the Bush policy," Senator Barack Obama said on a campaign stop in Gary, Ind.
Senator Hillary Clinton said, "Once again President Bush is asking Americans for time and patience — but the American people are saying he's had enough of both." She added, "It's time for the President to answer the question being asked of him: 'In the wake of the failed surge, what is the endgame in Iraq?' "
The President said his strategy — including the decision to send the so-called surge of 30,000 additional troops to Iraq a year ago — is working.
"Fifteen months ago, Americans were worried about the prospect of failure in Iraq," Mr. Bush said. "Today, thanks to the surge, we've renewed and revived the prospect of success."
He also compared the threat from al-Qaeda to the Soviet Union and said the cost of defeating Islamist extremists intent on establishing new Islamic governments is far less than defeating Communism when "our citizens recognized that the imperative of stopping Soviet expansion justified this expense."
"Today, we face an enemy that is not only expansionist in its aims but has actually attacked our homeland, and intends to do so again," he said. "Yet our defence budget accounts for just over 4 per cent of our economy; less than our commitment at any point during the four decades of the Cold War."
