US President George W. Bush yesterday concluded a weeklong effort to boost support for the war in Iraq among American voters and allies abroad, saying it was "good for the Iraqi people, good for America and good for the world."
With divisions over the war reverberating internationally, Bush said the toppling of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad removed a source of aggression in the region, brought aid to Iraqis and is giving hopes for freedom to people across the Middle East.
PHOTO: AP
"The liberation of Iraq was good for the Iraqi people, good for America, and good for the world,'' the president said in his weekly radio address. It was a cut-down version of a speech he gave on Friday at the White House marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
"The worst regime in the region was given way to what will soon be among the best,'' Bush contended.
A newly elected government in Spain has said it is pulling its troops from Iraq; the Polish president says its troops are staying put but talked this week of being misled about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction; and South Korea says its soldiers will still go to Iraq, but not the area where US commanders had requested.
In addition, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin blamed the war for making the world more dangerous, not less as Bush has argued.
Bush acknowledged the continued presence of "violent thugs and murderers in Iraq." This week saw bombings, shootings and mortar attacks across Iraq, including a suicide bombing at Baghdad's Mount Lebanon Hotel, and the death toll of American service members had neared 570 by Friday.
But the president pressed member nations of the Iraq coalition -- which he said number more than 50 -- not to abandon the US-led campaign for democracy and stability in Iraq.
"Helping Iraq emerge as a free nation is a global responsibility," he said. "We will never turn over Iraq to terrorists who intend our own destruction. We will not fail the Iraqi people, who have placed their trust in us."
With polls showing Bush with about as many detractors at home on his Iraq policies as backers and the issue at the forefront of the presidential campaign, he also linked his actions in Iraq to the larger war on terror -- a subject on which he is more popular.
He urged allies to stand firm in that battle as well.
"The terrorists hate and target a free Iraq. They also hate and target every country that stands for democracy, and tolerance, and freedom in the world," Bush said.
"The war on terror is not a figure of speech. It is the inescapable calling of our generation. ... Whatever it takes we will seek, and find, and destroy the terrorists," he said.
The White House arranged events every day this past week meant to highlight gains in the war on terrorism since the start of the Iraq war.
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