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Bush to Warn of Potentially Long Conflict
58 minutes ago
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) is looking to buck up the troops as U.S forces encounter tougher resistance in Iraq (news - web sites), warning Americans anew of a potentially long conflict.
The president on Wednesday was to visit the headquarters of Central Command, whose top general, Tommy Franks, is running the war against Iraq from a forward headquarters in Qatar.
Bush was getting a pair of briefings from Central Command brass and having lunch with troops. At the Tampa, Fla., facility, he also was giving a speech in which he was reminding military personnel that the United States leads a large coalition in the war to unseat Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said.
He also was cautioning a broader audience — the American public — that as the fight for control of Baghdad nears, "this could be long and hard, but that there is no doubt about success," Fleischer said.
That message was to be delivered at MacDill Air Force Base, which houses Central Command. It comes at a time when U.S. and British forces began to suffer battle casualties. Nine Marines were killed Sunday in an ambush, and Army helicopters encountered fierce resistance during an attack Monday on Republican Guard units protecting the approaches to Baghdad. One helicopter went down and its two-man crew was captured.
The turn of events in Iraq was reflected in a new poll by the Pew Research Center that showed just 38 percent of the public said the conflict was going well on Monday, down from 71 percent on Friday.
The first bodies of fallen American servicemen came back to the United States on Tuesday.
Blinding sandstorms plagued the American-led advance on Baghdad. Some helicopters were grounded by the weather and combat aircraft taking off from the USS Harry Truman returned a few hours later without dropping bombs on their targets.
"It's important for the American people to realize that this war has just begun, that it may seem like a long time because of all the action on TV," Bush told military leaders at the Pentagon (news - web sites) on Tuesday. "In terms of the overall strategy, we're just in the beginning phases, and that we're executing a plan which will make it easier to achieve objectives and, at the same time, spare innocent life.
"We're making good progress," said the president, who was to meet Wednesday night with his principal war ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
Bush has not traveled within the United States since Feb. 20, a period in which he oversaw final preparations for battle and also a last-ditch effort to win U.N. backing for the war.
For months, Bush has made warnings of the threat posed by Saddam a staple of his speeches on the road. Wednesday will mark the first time he travels to rally the troops and country behind the war itself.
Central Command is responsible for U.S. military operations in 25 countries, from the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf to Central Asia.
It is also overseeing Operation Enduring Freedom — the military's name for the global war on terrorism.
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