I say no bounce for W

[strandinthewind]

So much for a major speech in Iraq with new information tying SH to OBL and Al-Q and the attacks on America on 9/11 - which was Rove's spin on this. It is just essentially the same old tired rhetoric the polls indicate the public is tired of hearing and does not believe no matter how many times W smirkingly says it.

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Bush: Iraq crucial in global war on terror

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush, in a high-profile address on Thursday, said the global fight against terrorism must continue in Iraq because it is where terrorists are centering their movement to "intimidate the whole world."

If U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq, Bush said, insurgents would "use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against nonradical Muslim governments."

Bush made his remarks at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, and emphasized that the worldwide terror movement should not be appeased.

"We're not facing a set of grievances" that can be negotiated, Bush said.

"We're facing a radical ideology with an unalterable objective, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the whole world," he said.

Bush indicated that the public is unaware of many anti-terrorism victories. He said the United States and its allies have disrupted 10 al Qaeda terrorism plots since September 11, 2001, including three inside the United States.

Critics have charged that the Iraq war has become a breeding ground for terror, while opinion polls suggest that U.S. public support for the war has been waning since spring.

But Bush argued that the war has not caused hatred of the United States among radical Muslims or global terror attacks, but rather is an "excuse" to further the goal of creating an Islamic state across the Mideast.

"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia," Bush said.

"The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue," Bush said. "And it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse."

"No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no conscience, bribe or act of appeasement will change or limit their plans for murder."

On Wednesday, Bush met with top military advisers at the White House, telling reporters afterward that U.S. and Iraqi troops are on the offensive against insurgents who want to disrupt Iraq's October 15 vote on a new constitution.

He said about 3,000 Iraqi troops had done "a fine job" in recent combat alongside American units in western Iraq.

"Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We've got troops embedded with them, and that's an important part of the training mission," he said.

Bush has tried repeatedly to link Iraq to the anti-terror campaign launched after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Though the 9/11 commission found no operational relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq before the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, critics say the insurgency against U.S. troops that followed Saddam's overthrow has drawn terrorists into Iraq to fight Americans.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have carried out operations in western Iraq in recent weeks aimed at disrupting insurgent control in the region and targeting al Qaeda in Iraq, the group led by wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

One recent raid resulted in the terror group's No. 2 operative being killed, U.S. officials have said.

Polls have found U.S. public support for the Iraq war weakening since spring, despite speeches by the president in June and September that White House aides hoped would reverse the trend.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in late September found that 59 percent of people surveyed considered the 2003 invasion a mistake, 63 percent said they wanted to see some or all U.S. troops withdrawn, and only 32 percent approved of Bush's handling of the conflict.

Elections for permanent government
Registered Iraqi voters will head to the polls on October 15 to vote on whether to accept a new constitution.

Sunni Arabs, who are the minority in Iraq but who dominated during Saddam Hussein's regime, could defeat the charter if they get a two-thirds "no" vote in any three provinces -- a possibility that could occur in four of Iraq's 18 provinces.

The document's approval would lead to elections for a permanent government. But if rejected, elections for a new transitional government would be held and the process of drafting a national charter would start over.

Bush met Wednesday with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of the effort to train and equip Iraqi soldiers.

Petraeus said later that only one Iraqi battalion -- about 750 troops -- is capable of operating independent of coalition support.

But he said about 35 battalions are capable of taking the lead in operations with U.S. troops, and many of those second-tier units have assumed control over cities in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/...raq/index.html