President George W. Bush escalated the bitter debate over the Iraq war by hurling back at Democratic critics the worries they once expressed that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was a grave threat to the world.
"They spoke the truth then, and they're speaking politics now," Bush charged.
Bush went on the attack on Monday after Democrats accused the president of manipulating and withholding some prewar intelligence and misleading the US about the rationale for war.
PHOTO: AP
Bush said that "some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past. They're playing politics with this issue, and they are sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy. That is irresponsible."
The president spoke on Monday to cheering troops at this military base at a refueling stop for Air Force One on the first leg of an eight-day journey to Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia.
During the stopover, he also met privately with families of four slain service members.
On Sunday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley acknowledged "that we were wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but he insisted in a CNN interview that the president did not manipulate intelligence or mislead the US public.
Iraq and a host of other problems, from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in the CIA leak investigation, have taken a heavy toll on the president. Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency, most US citizens say Bush is not honest, and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terror. Heading for Asia, Bush hoped to improve his standing on the world stage.
"Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the US public," Bush said.
He quoted prewar remarks by three senior Democrats as evidence of that Democrats had shared the administration's fears that were given as the rationale for invading Iraq in 2003. Bush did not name them, but White House counselor Dan Bartlett filled in the blanks.
"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons." Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.
"The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as [Saddam Hussein] is in power." Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.
"Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think that the president's approaching this in the right fashion." Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, now the Senate minority leader.
"The truth is that investigations of the intelligence on Iraq have concluded that only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world -- and that person was Saddam Hussein," Bush charged.
In the Senate, 29 Democrats voted with 48 Republicans for the war authorization measure in late 2002, including last year's Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, and his running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. Both have been harshly critical recently of Bush's conduct of the US-led invasion and its aftermath.
On Capitol Hill, top Democrats stood their ground in claiming Bush misled Congress and the country. "The war in Iraq was and remains one of the great acts of misleading and deception in American history," Kerry told a news conference.
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