Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bush making Oval Office speech on Iraq

Terence Hunt Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Bush will address the nation about Iraq on Sunday evening, his first speech from the Oval Office since he announced the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

The address, at 6 p.m. PST, comes on the heels of a two-week, four-speech blitz to build support for a war that a majority of Americans now say was a mistake.

The White House said it was asking television networks for live coverage of the president’s address.

“The Iraqi people have just concluded a historic election, and we now are entering a critical period for our mission in Iraq,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Friday. “The president will talk about the importance of our mission and the way forward in 2006.”

In his four speeches, Bush sought to explain his Iraq policy more clearly – conceding that things have not gone as smoothly as he had hoped and emphasizing that much work needs to be done. The speeches brought forth an estimate from the president that 30,000 Iraqis have been killed in the invasion and its bloody aftermath.

More than 2,150 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war.

Bush began the series on Nov. 30 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., by focusing on the progress in training Iraqi security forces.

In his final speech, before the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan forum for the study of world affairs, Bush said the responsibility for invading Iraq based in part on faulty weapons intelligence rested solely with him.