Home>News Center>World
         
 

Bush defends decision to invade Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-13 08:33

Invading Iraq made America safer, U.S. President Bush said Monday, defending his war decision in the face of a Senate report debunking White House justifications for attacking Saddam Hussein's government.

Bush presented his case in a speech at Oak Ridge National Laboratory while Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser, was made available for cable television interviews to defend the administration's decisions.

Bush defends decision to invade Iraq
U.S. President Bush deliver his remarks on the war on terrorism at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Monday, July 12, 2004. Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq even as he conceded on Monday that investigators had not found the weapons of mass destruction that he had warned the country possessed.  [AP]
It was Bush's ninth trip to Tennessee, a state he won from Al Gore in 2000 and wants to win again in November. If listeners missed Bush's political message, they needed only to look at the red-white-and-blue sign posted behind the podium that read: "Protecting America." Underscoring his message, Bush said eight times in his speech that America was safer.

Three days ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee said the administration's belief that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons and was working to make nuclear weapons was wrong, based on false or overstated CIA analyses.

"Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq," Bush told lab employees assembled in an auditorium. "We removed a declared enemy of America who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them. In the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take."

Bush defends decision to invade Iraq
U.S. President George W. Bush speaks in front of a picture of an eagle at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, after touring a display of materials and equipment collected in Libya, July 12, 2004.  [Reuters]
It was Bush's first public reaction to the Senate panel's criticism.

Bush noted problems cited in the Senate report, including a shortage of human-gathered intelligence and poor coordination among intelligence services. But he did not comment on ideas proposed for reforming America's intelligence network, nor did he say when he planned to name a new CIA director to replace George Tenet, who stepped down Sunday for personal reasons.

Instead, Bush sought to compare situations in nations like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya to how they were three years ago when the Taliban ruled in Kabul, Saddam was in power in Baghdad and Libya was backing terrorism and spending money to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Under an agreement with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to dismantle his country's nuclear weapons program, Libya's weapons hardware was shipped to Oak Ridge earlier this year.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry quickly dismissed Bush's claim that Americans are safer and said that if elected, his No. 1 security goal would be to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

"Have we taken every step we should to stop North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs?" Kerry asked. "Have we restructured our intelligence agencies and given them the resources they need to keep our country safe? The honest answer, in each of these areas, is that we have done too little, often too late, and even cut back our efforts. It's not enough to give speeches."

"The facts speak for themselves. There was less nuclear weapons materials secured in the two years after Sept. 11 than in the two years before," he said. "North Korea has reportedly quadrupled its nuclear weapons capability in the past year. Iran is developing a nuclear weapons capability. Afghanistan has become a forgotten front in the war on terror."

The White House has long portrayed Libya's pledge to abandon weapons of mass destruction programs as affirmation of Bush's hard-line strategy on arms proliferation and suggested the U.S.-led war in Iraq helped convince Gadhafi that he should act.

"This progress came about through quiet diplomacy between America, Britain and the Libyan government," Bush said. "This progress was set in motion, however, by policies declared in public to all the world. ... Every potential adversary now knows that terrorism and proliferation carry serious consequences, and that the wise course is to abandon those pursuits."

Rice, meanwhile, denied suggestions that the administration was considering ways to delay the November election if there were a terrorist attack. "No one's thinking about postponing the election," she said.



USS Park Royal crew await for Rice
Coffin of Milosevic flew to Belgrade
Kidnapping spree in Gaza Strip
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Australia, US, Japan praise China for Asia engagement

 

   
 

Banker: China doing its best on flexible yuan

 

   
 

Hopes high for oil pipeline deal

 

   
 

Possibilities of bird flu outbreaks reduced

 

   
 

Milosevic buried after emotional farewell

 

   
 

China considers trade contracts in India

 

   
  Journalist's alleged killers held in Iraq
   
  No poisons found in Milosevic's body
   
  US, Britain, France upbeat on Iran agreement
   
  Fatah officials call for Abbas to resign
   
  Sectarian violence increases in Iraq
   
  US support for troops in Iraq hits new low
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Iraq doubts keep Bush's popularity on the slide
   
Bush: US freedom can change the world
   
Kerry vows to make US respected again
   
AP poll: Bush gains slight lead over Kerry
   
US ponders delay Election Day
Manufacturers, Exporters, Wholesalers - Global trade starts here.
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 午夜电影一区二区| 国产精品密蕾丝视频| 久久久久亚洲av无码专区蜜芽| 欧美成人片一区二区三区| 免费一看一级毛片| 羞羞网站免费观看| 国产亚洲高清不卡在线观看| 日本阿v精品视频在线观看| 国产麻豆综合视频在线观看| xxxx日本黄色| 成人妇女免费播放久久久| 久久桃花综合桃花七七网| 欧美xxx高清| 亚洲欧洲日韩在线电影| 狠狠色丁香久久婷婷综合| 午夜a级成人免费毛片| 色国产在线观看| 国产人成视频在线观看| 国产成人精品亚洲2020| 日韩国产成人资源精品视频| 亚洲成a人片在线观看播放| 激情欧美一区二区三区| 免费网站无遮挡| 精品无码国产自产拍在线观看| 国产一区二区三区美女| 韩国三级大全久久电影| 国产成a人片在线观看视频下载| 日本特黄特色特爽大片老鸭| 国产精品午夜剧场| 2020国产精品永久在线| 国产综合久久久久久鬼色| 97久久人人超碰国产精品| 在线观看的网站| 99精品国产在热久久| 天天摸天天干天天操| √天堂资源地址在线官网| 少妇群交换BD高清国语版| 一道本不卡视频| 巨年少根与艳妇全文阅| 一级做a爰片久久免费| 性生活大片免费观看|