E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Bush warns against retreat from Iraq
SALT LAKE CITY - Amid growing calls for a US withdrawal from Iraq, US President George W. Bush fought back Monday with a warning that “a policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety” from terrorists. After a rare specific reference to the 1,864 US soldiers killed in Iraq, Bush said: “We owe them something. We will finish the task that they gave their lives for. We’ll honor their sacrifice by staying on the offensive.”

“A policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety. The only way to defend our citizens where we live is go after the terrorists where they live,” the president said in a speech to about 15,000 veterans.
He needs to do this more often.
Between 50 and 100 anti-war ninnies demonstrators staged a protest outside the convention center where Bush spoke. They displayed signs reading “Support the Troops, Bring Them Home Now” and “Stop the Illegal War.”

Bush downplayed deep schisms that plagued Iraqi political leaders’ efforts to draft a new constitution, predicting that they would agree on a “landmark” democratic blueprint. “The establishment of a democratic constitution will be a landmark event in the history of Iraq and the history of the Middle East,” he said. “All of Iraq’s main ethnic and religious groups are working together on this vital project. All made the courageous choice to join the political process. And together they will produce a constitution that reflects the values and traditions of the Iraqi people,” said Bush.

Bush said Iraq was a central front of the global war on terrorism he declared in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. He said terrorists like bin Laden and Iraq’s most-wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, hoped to remake Iraq in the image of the Islamist Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan until US forces and Afghan militias ousted them in 2001.

Bush also warned that Islamist terrorists hoped “to drive nations into retreat so they can topple governments across the Middle East, establish Taliban-like regimes and turn that region into a launching pad for more attacks against our people.”
And tell the citizens how disheartened average people across the Middle East would become if we withdrew.

Posted by: Steve White 2005-08-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=127472