Bush U-turn: we can win war on terror
In a speech to the national convention of the American Legion, Mr 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 Mr Bush’s earlier comment, aired on Monday in a pre-taped television interview, in which he said “I don’t think you can win” the war on terror.
It had Democrats running for the cameras to criticise Mr 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. “The war on terrorism is absolutely winnable.”
Mr Bush’s comment - and the ensuing criticism - took attention away from the carefully-crafted image 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 Mr 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 yesterday’s speech before the American Legion, with popular Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona by his side, Mr Bush himself hit back.
“In this different kind of war, we may never sit down at a peace table. But make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win,” Mr Bush said, pausing to grin. “We will win by staying on the offensive, we will win by spreading liberty.”
Laura Bush defended her husband, saying on ABC’s Good Morning America that “this isn’t a war with a country where you’re going to have a surrender at some point, but the fact is, as we look around the world, we are already winning the war on terror”.
However, Phil Singer, a spokesman for Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry said: “This president has gone from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible on the war on terror.”
The president also appealed to a constituency so important in this election that Mr Kerry is breaking with a tradition that the other side remains quiet during their opponent’s convention to speak to the American Legion meeting today.
Mr Bush’s campaign swing will land him in New York today, a day before his convention speech accepting the GOP nomination for a second term tomorrow. Also yesterday, Mr Bush said he will continue pursuing diplomatic rather than military options to try to get Iran to halt its nuclear programme. Earlier this month, Iran confirmed it had resumed building nuclear centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium to weapons grade, and declared it should have the right to advanced nuclear technology.
