Bush calls for war "across the world"

Bush calls for war "across the world"

Reuters News Agency Oct. 1, 2006

US President George W. Bush called for fighting America's enemies "across the world" as he stepped up his counteroffensive following charges that his policies were breeding a new generation of Islamic terrorists.

The call, delivered in his weekly radio address, was aimed at countering a rash of accusations that the Bush administration had seriously mishandled the war in Iraq and created fertile ground for Islamic extremism.

The criticism was fueled by a new National Intelligence Estimate, portions of which were declassified this past week. The document argues that the war in Iraq
"The only way to protect our citizens at home is to go on the offense against the enemy across the world.

"When terrorists spend their days working to avoid capture, they are less able to plot, plan, and execute new attacks on our people.

"So we will remain on the offense until the terrorists are defeated and this fight is won."

President George W. Bush
had spawned a new generation of Islamic radicals determined to strike against the United States.

Casting another cloud over the administration's policy was a new book by veteran Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, State of Denial, which alleges a number of policy blunders committed in Iraq, amid bitter feuding by the president and his closest aides and refusal to acknowledge reality.

The controversy may have further dimmed the public's view of the war. The latest CNN television poll showed 61 percent of Americans now believed the war in Iraq was going either "very badly" or "moderately badly," compared with 38 percent who thought it was going "very well" or "moderately well."

But Bush insisted Saturday that claims that the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq was helping foster anti-American terrorism were tantamount to buying "into the enemy's propaganda."

"The only way to protect our citizens at home is to go on the offense against the enemy across the world," the president said. "So we will remain on the offense until the terrorists are defeated and this fight is won."

The Republican president, who just two days ago branded opposition Democrats "the party of cut-and-run," argued an early withdrawal from Iraq, as recommended by some Democrats, would only embolden terrorists.
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