Bush Defends Pre-Emptive Strikes
WEST POINT, N.Y. — President George W. Bush on Tuesday defended his doctrine of pre-emptive war and warned that the United States must remain willing to "to take the fight to our enemies across the world."
Down to his waning days in office, Bush is trying to define his own legacy, never more clearly than during his sprawling account here of how the U.S. armed forces have changed under his watch.
The president declared that today's military is "stronger, more agile and better prepared" than the one he inherited in 2001. It was a defense against criticism that Bush has stretched the military to dangerous levels with wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
"With all the actions we've taken these past eight years, we've laid a solid foundation on which future presidents and future military leaders can build," Bush told thousands of cadets at West Point, the premier officer training institution for the Army.
On topics as diverse as Iraq, veterans care, education and AIDS relief, Bush has been using his final days in office to help shape how he is remembered. He kept quiet during the long election season, mainly to avoid stepping on the message of Republican John McCain. That's over now.
Bush lauded his own administration for beefing up and reshaping its intelligence community, cutting off the assets of terrorist groups, and employing diplomacy to attract world partners. He even gave a rare shout out to his former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, for leading the charge for a more nimble military.
Bush sacked Rumsfeld midway through his second term.
With the presidential pulpit still his, Bush went so far as to essentially spell out an agenda for his successor, Democrat Barack Obama.
Bush implored the next government to stand with dissidents who support freedom, and provide all needed help to U.S. troops and their families.
"We must be determined and we must be relentless to do our duty to protect the American people from harm," Bush said.
Obama has pledged to end the Iraq war and employ diplomacy more often than Bush.
Many of Bush's critics say his military approach has had disastrous consequences for the U.S., embroiling the U.S. in war, angering allies and running up enormous debt.
Before Bush leaves, he is determined to tell a different story.
The president said that after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. saw the urgency of staying a step ahead of its enemies.
The policy became known as the Bush Doctrine. It says that the U.S. treats those who harbor terrorists the same as terrorists; that threats must be confronted before they are carried out; and that freedom, if promoted, can counter ideologies of hate.
On Tuesday, recounting the run-up to the Iraq war, Bush again tied Iraq to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Independent reviews have long discredited any such link.
"After seeing the destruction of September 11th, we concluded that America could not afford to allow a regime with such a threatening and violent record to remain in the heart of the Middle East," Bush said. He said a coalition of nations acted to liberate Iraq.
The president made no mention of faulty intelligence reports about Iraq's weaponry capability that his administration used to justify the war. In other contexts, however, Bush has spoken recently about the flawed intelligence about Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction as the biggest regret of his presidency. Both Bush and Congress have worked to improve the sophistication and candor of intelligence reporting since then.
Bush said that terrorists have been "severely weakened" during his tenure, citing the disruption of plots against the U.S. and the capture of key al-Qaida operatives.
Yet seven years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden, remains at large. So does his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal area of Pakistan on the border of Afghanistan.
Without mentioning them by name, Bush said of the two al-Qaida's leaders: "The day will come _ the day will come _ when they receive the justice they deserve."
Al-Qaida has reconstituted much of its pre-Sept. 11 operational capabilities according to U.S. intelligence reports.
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Associated Press Writer Pamela Hess contributed to this story.
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BEN FELLER | December 9, 2008 04:14 PM EST |
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