Bush: Iraq is 'central front' against terrorism

SALT LAKE CITY (BP)-When the United States was attacked by terrorists nearly five years ago, Americans awoke to the reality of the "decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century," but they have since let down their guard, President Bush said Aug. 31.

"As the horror of that morning grows more distant, there is a tendency to believe that the threat is receding and this war is coming to a close," Bush told veterans at the American Legion's national convention in Salt Lake City. "That feeling is natural and comforting-and wrong. As we recently saw, the enemy still wants to attack us. We're in a war we didn't ask for, but it's a war we must wage, and a war we will win."

The brutal images of war can leave Americans half a world away feeling like the violence is without purpose, Bush said in the first in a series of speeches aimed at bolstering support for the war in Iraq. But the truth is that those who perpetrate such horror have a clear purpose-"to turn back the advance of freedom and impose a dark vision of tyranny and terror across the world," the president said.

"They're successors to Fascists, to Nazis, to Communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century. And history shows what the outcome will be: This war will be difficult, this war will be long and this war will end in the defeat of the terrorists and totalitarians and a victory for the cause of freedom and liberty."

During the period that the United States was fighting the Soviet Union in the Cold War, Bush said, it was important to support Middle East governments that rejected communism. But such tolerance of that region led to unexpected danger.

"We realized that years of pursuing stability to promote peace had left us with neither," he said. "Instead, the lack of freedom in the Middle East made the region an incubator for terrorist movements. The status quo in the Middle East before Sept. 11 was dangerous and unacceptable, so we're pursuing a new strategy."

That strategy includes staying on the offense and fighting the terrorists overseas so Americans do not have to face them at home, the president said. By confronting al Qaeda, by holding to account nations that harbor terrorists and by supporting the forces of freedom in the Middle East, freedom will prevail, he said.

"We believe that freedom is a gift from an almighty God, beyond any power on earth to take away," Bush said. "And we also know, by history and by logic, that promoting democracy is the surest way to build security."

By supporting the cause of freedom in a vital region, Bush said, "we'll make our children and our grandchildren more secure." He pointed to Afghanistan, where "the days of the Taliban are over," and "the future of Afghanistan belongs to the people of Afghanistan." Terrorists are fighting hard to take back that country, but America is standing on the side of freedom, he said.

"In Iraq, we saw a dictator who harbored terrorists, fired at military planes, paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, invaded a neighbor and pursued and used weapons of mass destruction," Bush said. "... And now Saddam Hussein is in prison and on trial. Soon he will have the justice he denied to so many for so long. And with this tyrant gone from power, the United States, Iraq, the Middle East and the world are better off."

Referencing critics of the war in Iraq, the president said America has a choice to make as some politicians contend the efforts in Iraq are a diversion from the war on terror.

"It's hard to believe that these terrorists would make long journeys across dangerous borders, endure heavy fighting or blow themselves up in the streets of Baghdad for a so-called 'diversion,'" Bush said.

Many of the critics are "sincere" and "patriotic," but "they could not be more wrong," the president said. If U.S. troops were to pull out of Iraq now, "we would be handing Iraq over to our worst enemies" and giving al Qaeda a "base of operations far more valuable than Afghanistan under the Taliban," he added.

"If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities," Bush said. "We can decide to stop fighting the terrorists in Iraq and other parts of the world, but they will not decide to stop fighting us.

"General John Abizaid, our top commander in the Middle East region, recently put it this way: 'If we leave, they will follow us.' And he is right," Bush said. "The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq. So the United States of America will not leave until victory is achieved."

The road to peace in the Middle East will be "uphill and uneven," Bush said, noting that Thomas Jefferson said in the early years of the republic that a nation cannot move "from despotism to liberty in a featherbed."

"No one understands that like you, our veterans, understand that," the president said. "With the distance of history, it can be easy to look back at the wars of the 20th century and see a straight path to victory. You know better than that. You waged the hard battles, you suffered the wounds, you lost friends and brothers. You were there for dark times and the moments of uncertainty. And you know that freedom is always worth the sacrifice.

"You also know what it takes to win," Bush added. "For all that is new about this war, one thing has not changed: Victory still depends on the courage and the patience and the resolve of the American people."