Bush signs $400bn defence bill

President George Bush signed a $401bn (€341bn) defence authorisation bill today, saying members of the US armed forces are facing “a great and historic task” in confronting and defeating the forces of terrorism.

“The stakes for our country could not be higher,” the president said at a Defence Department ceremony. “We face enemies that measure their progress by the chaos they inflict, the fear they spread and the innocent lives they destroy.”

“America’s military is standing between our country and grave danger,” he proclaimed.

Bush spoke before leaving town for a holiday week at his ranch.

On the way to Texas, Bush was stopping in Colorado at Fort Carson, home to four of the 16 soldiers killed on November 2 when a helicopter was shot down in the dangerous Sunni Triangle near Fallujah, Iraq.

“We’re standing for order and hope and democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the president said. “We’re standing up for the for security of all free nations and for the advance of freedom. The American people and your commander in chief are grateful,” he said, “and we will support you in all your central missions.”

US policies in Iraq are a major political vulnerability for Bush in the 2004 election season.

After months in which more than half of Americans approved of the president’s handling of Iraq, a recent CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll showed disapproval at 54% and approval at 45%t. Other polls find the public evenly divided on that question.

Public approval of Bush’s handling of the economy, meanwhile, has increased recently with positive news on that front.