After Citing Doubt, Bush Declares 'We Will Win' Terror War
By DAVID STOUT
Published: August 31, 2004
President Bush tried today to stop the political fallout over his comments last weekend that the war on terror might not be winnable. Indeed, "we will win" that war, Mr. Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in Nashville.
"We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win," Mr. Bush said.
The president spoke on the second day of the Republican National Convention in New York City, where he will deliver his nomination-acceptance speech on Thursday.
Mr. Bush and his campaign aides have tried to polish his credentials as a commander in chief who rallied the nation after Sept. 11, 2001, and as a resolute leader who can protect the country in dangerous times. That theme was the basis of ringing endorsement speeches on Monday night by Senator John S. McCain of Arizona and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York.
And it will surely be prominent in Mr. Bush's own speech on Thursday night, as it was today before the American Legion in Tennessee. "In this different kind of war, we may never sit down at a peace table," Mr. Bush told the American Legion delegates. "But make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win."
Later, in an interview with the conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, Mr. Bush elaborated further. "What I meant was that this is not a conventional war," he said from Iowa. "It is a different kind of war. We're fighting people who have got a dark ideology who use terrorists, terrorism, as a tool."
After telling Mr. Limbaugh that "I probably needed to be a little more articulate" in his initial comments, which he had made in an interview with Matt Lauer of the NBC program "Today" program, the president went on to say: "Really what I was saying to Lauer was, is that this is not the kind of war where you sit down and sign a peace treaty. It's a totally different kind of war. But we will win it."
"Your listeners," he added, "have got to know that I know we'll win it, but we're going to have to be resolved and firm, and we can't doubt what we stand for, and the long-term solution is to spread freedom."
The president's unambiguous remarks today contrasted with a statement he had made in the interview with Mr. Lauer, which was broadcast on Monday. When he was asked about the war on terrorism, Mr. Bush replied, "I don't think you can win it." The president went on to say, "I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."
White House officials later said Mr. Bush was not signaling any change in policy or outlook but rather was emphasizing that the struggle against terrorists would be a prolonged one without clear front lines, a struggle in which Americans should not expect any formal surrender.
The chief White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said today that some people were "trying to create a false perception" by asserting that the president had shifted his stance, when in fact, Mr. McClellan said, he had not.
But the campaign of Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, was quick to pounce, issuing a statement today declaring, "Bush flip-flops on winning the war on terror." The wording was, of course, an attempt to take advantage of the "flip-flop" label that the Bush campaign has pinned on Mr. Kerry.
"What today showed is that George Bush might be able to read a speech saying we can win the war on terror," a Kerry spokesman, Phil Singer, said, "but as we saw yesterday, he's clearly got real doubts about his ability to do so, and with good reason."
Mr. Singer went on to say that Mr. Bush "has gone from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible on the war on terror," recalling the president's recent acknowledgment that he had "miscalculated" on some aspects of the Iraq campaign.
"We need a leader who knows we can win the war on terror and has a plan to do it," Mr. Singer said.
Continued........
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