MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., June 16 - Two weeks before the handover of sovereignty to a new Iraqi government, President Bush told thousands of American troops here and around the world on Wednesday that "a democratic, free Iraq is on the way" and insisted that despite the daily toll of the insurgency the country's economy was growing and "life is better."
Mr. Bush's speech here at the headquarters of the United States Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, came only a day after a poll of Iraqis commissioned by the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority painted a very different picture, one in which the occupation is overwhelmingly unpopular and sentiment is rising for American troops to leave the country.
Yet to the cheers of troops here, and others connected via a video link in Bagram, Afghanistan, and a hangar at the Baghdad airport, Mr. Bush insisted that over the long run Iraqis would be grateful for the occupation, which he likened to the American reconstruction of postwar Germany. After the handover of power on June 30, he said, American troops will take on the role of "supporting" Iraqi forces, and he insisted it would become clear that the insurgents were "not fighting foreign forces, they're fighting the Iraqi people."
Mr. Bush has repeatedly returned to Florida, a state that he narrowly won in 2000 and that is widely viewed as up for grabs this year, to drive home the major themes of his re-election campaign. So it was no surprise he chose Centcom, as it is known, for another of his speeches explaining his goals in Iraq.
Local television coverage was heavy, and Air Force One was parked as a backdrop outside the hangar where he spoke. His welcome was overwhelming, as it often is when he visits military bases, though this time he referred to the strain that long deployments were creating among families here.
Mr. Bush's aides are increasingly apprehensive about the drop in his approval ratings that polls indicate are largely attributable to his handling of Iraq and the prisoner abuse scandal. Publicly, they express confidence that those numbers will recover once Iraq settles down. Privately, they say, they are uncertain it will settle down in time for the election.
On Wednesday, Mr. Bush focused on the best news he could find in the 14 days before the handover. He said that thousands of schools had reopened and that electricity had been restored, not mentioning that electricity was being generated far below the levels his own administration set as a goal. He described the country as a thriving start-up venture in democratic capitalism.
"Markets are beginning to thrive, new businesses have opened, a stable new currency is in place, dozens of political parties are organizing, hundreds of courts of law are opening across the country," he said. "Today in Iraq more than 170 newspapers are being published."
Of the violence in Iraq, he pledged that "the traitors will be defeated."
"Their greatest fear is an Iraqi government of, by and for the Iraqi people,'' Mr. Bush said. "And no matter what the terrorists plan, no matter what they attempt, a democratic, free Iraq is on the way."
Mr. Bush's probable Democratic opponent, Senator John Kerry, shot back with a critique of the war. "The U.S. should never go to war because it wants to," Mr. Kerry said. "The U.S. should only go to war because it has to. This president failed the test in Iraq."
Mr. Bush's speech came only an hour or so before the 9/11 commission declared that there had been no cooperation between Al Qaeda and the now-deposed government of Saddam Hussein. That alleged collaboration, and the prospect that the two could share weapons of mass destruction, was an argument the administration marshaled last year to lend a sense of urgency to confronting Mr. Hussein. And in his talk to the troops, Mr. Bush melded the fights in Afghanistan and Iraq into a single, broader struggle against "terrorists in distant lands."
His effort on Wednesday to merge those conflicts under the umbrella of a war on terror led to an immediate response from two of Mr. Kerry's top national security advisers, former Defense Secretary William Perry and Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida.
Mr. Graham, who has spent years on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is considered a vice-presidential contender, said Mr. Bush had "essentially ignored the war on terror" in Afghanistan once he began to divert troops to Iraq, a country that Mr. Graham argued posed no terror threat to the United States until the fall of Mr. Hussein made it a haven for terrorism.
Mr. Perry, who has been informally advising Mr. Kerry, told reporters in a conference call that "the reality is that we do not have enough boots on the ground in Iraq to maintain security in a country as large as Iraq in the face of insurgent operation.''
David E. Sanger - NY Times
Mr. Bush's speech here at the headquarters of the United States Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, came only a day after a poll of Iraqis commissioned by the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority painted a very different picture, one in which the occupation is overwhelmingly unpopular and sentiment is rising for American troops to leave the country.
Yet to the cheers of troops here, and others connected via a video link in Bagram, Afghanistan, and a hangar at the Baghdad airport, Mr. Bush insisted that over the long run Iraqis would be grateful for the occupation, which he likened to the American reconstruction of postwar Germany. After the handover of power on June 30, he said, American troops will take on the role of "supporting" Iraqi forces, and he insisted it would become clear that the insurgents were "not fighting foreign forces, they're fighting the Iraqi people."
Mr. Bush has repeatedly returned to Florida, a state that he narrowly won in 2000 and that is widely viewed as up for grabs this year, to drive home the major themes of his re-election campaign. So it was no surprise he chose Centcom, as it is known, for another of his speeches explaining his goals in Iraq.
Local television coverage was heavy, and Air Force One was parked as a backdrop outside the hangar where he spoke. His welcome was overwhelming, as it often is when he visits military bases, though this time he referred to the strain that long deployments were creating among families here.
Mr. Bush's aides are increasingly apprehensive about the drop in his approval ratings that polls indicate are largely attributable to his handling of Iraq and the prisoner abuse scandal. Publicly, they express confidence that those numbers will recover once Iraq settles down. Privately, they say, they are uncertain it will settle down in time for the election.
On Wednesday, Mr. Bush focused on the best news he could find in the 14 days before the handover. He said that thousands of schools had reopened and that electricity had been restored, not mentioning that electricity was being generated far below the levels his own administration set as a goal. He described the country as a thriving start-up venture in democratic capitalism.
"Markets are beginning to thrive, new businesses have opened, a stable new currency is in place, dozens of political parties are organizing, hundreds of courts of law are opening across the country," he said. "Today in Iraq more than 170 newspapers are being published."
Of the violence in Iraq, he pledged that "the traitors will be defeated."
"Their greatest fear is an Iraqi government of, by and for the Iraqi people,'' Mr. Bush said. "And no matter what the terrorists plan, no matter what they attempt, a democratic, free Iraq is on the way."
Mr. Bush's probable Democratic opponent, Senator John Kerry, shot back with a critique of the war. "The U.S. should never go to war because it wants to," Mr. Kerry said. "The U.S. should only go to war because it has to. This president failed the test in Iraq."
Mr. Bush's speech came only an hour or so before the 9/11 commission declared that there had been no cooperation between Al Qaeda and the now-deposed government of Saddam Hussein. That alleged collaboration, and the prospect that the two could share weapons of mass destruction, was an argument the administration marshaled last year to lend a sense of urgency to confronting Mr. Hussein. And in his talk to the troops, Mr. Bush melded the fights in Afghanistan and Iraq into a single, broader struggle against "terrorists in distant lands."
His effort on Wednesday to merge those conflicts under the umbrella of a war on terror led to an immediate response from two of Mr. Kerry's top national security advisers, former Defense Secretary William Perry and Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida.
Mr. Graham, who has spent years on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is considered a vice-presidential contender, said Mr. Bush had "essentially ignored the war on terror" in Afghanistan once he began to divert troops to Iraq, a country that Mr. Graham argued posed no terror threat to the United States until the fall of Mr. Hussein made it a haven for terrorism.
Mr. Perry, who has been informally advising Mr. Kerry, told reporters in a conference call that "the reality is that we do not have enough boots on the ground in Iraq to maintain security in a country as large as Iraq in the face of insurgent operation.''
David E. Sanger - NY Times
