Bush tells troops loss is ‘worth it’

FORT LEWIS, Wash. – Standing before thousands of soldiers in a sweltering helicopter hangar Friday, President Bush praised the troops and told them their sacrifices – including two dozen dead comrades – have been worth it.

“By fighting terrorists in distant lands, you are making sure your fellow citizens do not face them here at home,” Bush told the black-bereted troops and their families. His speech was punctuated by applause, cheers and military “hoo-ahs” of approval.

In the 14 months since Baghdad fell, no caches of chemical or biological weapons have been found in Iraq. Nor did the country have any direct involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a report this week from the federal 9-11 commission.

Nonetheless, Bush told the troops Friday, Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States.

“This was a regime that had used chemical weapons before,” he said. “This is a regime that gave cash rewards to families of suicide bombers. This is a regime that sheltered terrorist groups. This is a regime that hated America.”

Sharing the stage with Bush was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has spent recent weeks trying to squelch speculation that he might join Bush’s presumed opponent, John Kerry, as a candidate for vice president.

McCain told the troops that Bush is a man who “has led this country with moral clarity” and was committed to them and to the fight against terrorism.

“War, my friends, is an unhappy business,” McCain said. “It’s a miserable business. You know that better than most.

“But there is no avoiding this war,” he told them. “America is under attack by a depraved, malevolent force that opposes … and hates every value we hold dear.”

Fort Lewis, a sprawling Army base near Tacoma, is one of the largest Army bases on the West Coast. Twenty-four Fort Lewis troops were among the 830 killed so far in Iraq.

The base is also home to special forces units, including the Army Rangers, and to two of the Army’s new Stryker brigades, which use a fast, quiet armored vehicle with wheels instead of tank treads. Bush was the first president to visit the base since Franklin Roosevelt in 1942.

Bush praised the Strykers, saying that some Iraqis have nicknamed the vehicles the “Ghost Riders” because of their stealth and speed.

“The terrorists in Iraq have plenty to fear from the ‘Ghost Riders’ of Fort Lewis, Washington,” Bush said, to cheers.

Among those in the crowd Friday was Rep. Adam Smith, a Tacoma Democrat who recently visited troops in Iraq. He thinks Bush has handled the war and occupation badly.

“There are a lot of threats in the world,” Smith said afterward. “Merely saying that someone’s a threat does not necessarily lead to armed conflict to remove them.”

The Bush administration didn’t prepare enough for peacekeeping or nation-building after Baghdad fell, Smith said. That, he said, spawned looting and chaos. The administration is also stretching the military too thin, Smith said, deploying people overseas frequently. The Army needs at least two or three more divisions to spread that load, he said.

Former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, who lost three limbs to a grenade while serving in Vietnam War, was more critical of Bush.

“I find it absolutely incredulous that the president would say he’s supporting the troops when he’s committing them to a quagmire that we have no strategy to win and no strategy to get out of,” Cleland said in a conference call arranged by the Kerry campaign.

Cleland said Bush should apologize to the troops for what he’s gotten them into.

Bush also worsened the situation with his earlier “Bring them on” bravado, the former senator said.

“He has attracted every jihadist in the Middle East,” Cleland said.

In his speech, Bush painted a much rosier picture of Iraq today. Coalition forces have rehabilitated thousands of schools in Iraq, he said. Thousands of secondary school teachers are being trained. Despite continued attacks, electricity is being restored, he said, and the nation’s oil revenues are rising.

As Iraq moves forward to self-government and self-reliance, he said, terrorists are likely to become more desperate and violent.

“These killers know they have no future in a free Iraq,” Bush said. “And so they’re attacking us, and they’re attacking free Iraqis. They don’t understand our country. They don’t understand our resolve.

“When America says we’ll do something, we are going to do it, and finish the job.”

After the speech, a motorcade of limousines, vans and SUVs raced across Fort Lewis to the base hospital, zooming past clusters of waving spectators and crossroads blocked by armored vehicles.

In a meeting at the hospital, Bush and McCain met privately with some of the family members of Fort Lewis soldiers killed in Iraq.

“I’m going to say to them, ‘Your loved one died for a cause greater than self, and it was worth it,’ ” Bush said. “It’s worth peace and security.”