Bush claims war on terror can be won

Performing a rapid U-turn, President George Bush now believes the US will win the war on terrorism, despite suggesting 24 hours earlier it could not be won.

Bush “will make it crystal clear … that we will win the war on terrorism by continuing to take the fight to the enemy,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said ahead of the president’s speech in Nashville, Tennessee, to the American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans organisation.

As the four day Republican National Convention headed into its second day at New York’s Madison Square Garden under extremely heavy security, Bush supporters scrambled to explain the president’s day old comments that the war against terror could not be won.

First lady 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.”

Still, Democrats pounced on the president’s remark in hopes of stealing some convention-week spotlight from Republicans.

Asked by reporters whether the war on terror could be won, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry replied, “Absolutely.”