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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bush defends war in Iraq as deterrent to terror


President Bush makes a statement at the Pentagon on the war on terror, Thursday after attending a briefing there. Bush said that withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq would make the world more dangerous.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By Warren Vieth Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON – President Bush said Thursday that mistakes made by three of his predecessors, including the Reagan administration’s restraint following the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, had emboldened terrorists and helped set the stage for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Bush said he was determined not to repeat the pattern by pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq before the insurgency there is contained and Iraqi forces are able to provide their own security.

“To leave Iraq now would be to repeat the costly mistakes of the past that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” Bush said in remarks at the Pentagon following a briefing by defense officials.

Without mentioning his predecessors by name, he cited as examples the U.S. response to the hostage crisis in Iran during the Carter administration, the Lebanon bombing under Reagan, and four crises during the Clinton administration: the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. In each case, the president chose not to retaliate with large-scale military offensives.

“The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves, and so they attacked us,” said the president. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior military officials stood at his side.

Bush did not mention any events during the first Bush administration, such as his father’s decision to end the first Gulf war without sending coalition troops to Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein.

Bush’s characterization of progress made fighting terrorism was questioned by some critics.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the number of “significant terrorist attacks” tracked by the State Department had reached their highest level, and that most occurred in Iraq.

“There are nine times as many terrorist attacks in Iraq this year as there were last year,” Markey said. “What kind of progress is that?”

The president spoke two days before tens of thousands of anti-war activists were expected to gather in the nation’s capital to demand a rapid U.S. disengagement from Iraq. Participants in Saturday’s events include Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq last year. Sheehan set up a tent camp outside Bush’s Texas ranch during his vacation last month.

Bush will not be in town when the anti-war demonstrators are scheduled to converge on the White House, where they hope to deliver a message to the president. Bush was scheduled to fly to Texas and Colorado late today to review Hurricane Rita preparations and Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, and would stay overnight in Colorado. His plans beyond that remain in flux, the White House said.