Reno, Nev. – Two weeks before receiving a major assessment of the war in Iraq, President Bush gave a ringing defense of the war effort Tuesday in a speech that sounded like he’d already made up his mind to stay and fight.
Bush hailed security gains, defended middling progress by Iraqi leaders and argued that the future of the entire Middle East would rise or fall on the outcome.
“It’s going to take time for the recent progress we have seen in security to translate into political progress,” Bush told a friendly audience at the American Legion’s national convention. “Leaders in Washington need to look for ways to help our Iraqi allies succeed, not excuses for abandoning them.”
Bush argued that withdrawing American forces would allow the Middle East to be taken over by extremists and put the security of the United States in jeopardy. By contrast, he said, continuing to fight is “the most important and immediate way” to put the strategic, struggling region on a path to democracy, economic expansion and stability that is inhospitable to terrorists.
Democrats criticized Bush’s approach.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Bush “continues to stubbornly pursue a flawed strategy” that has failed to deliver in Iraq, diverted attention from battling al-Qaeda, and depleted the military’s ability to respond to other crises.
“A change of course in Iraq is long overdue” and will be pressed by the Democrats who control Congress, Reid said.
Bush’s speech at the American Legion convention was his second in a week devoted to trying to build support for the unpopular war, now in its fifth year.
Bush plans to ask Congress next month for up to $50 billion in additional funding for the war, a White House official said Tuesday, a move that appears to reflect increasing White House confidence that it can fend off congressional calls for a rapid drawdown of U.S. forces. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to reporters.
The request – which would come on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – is expected to be announced after congressional hearings scheduled for mid-September featuring the two top U.S. officials in Iraq. Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will assess the state of the war and the effect of the new strategy the U.S. military has pursued this year.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
