Bush: Critics try to rewrite Iraq war history

TOBYHANNA, Pa. - President Bush, in the most forceful defense yet of his Iraq war policy, accused critics Friday of trying to rewrite history and charged that they’re undercutting America’s forces on the front lines.

“The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges,” the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.

“When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support,” Bush said. “While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.”

Bush spoke at the Tobyhanna Army Depot on a stage decorated with posters that said “Strategy for Victory.”

It was his toughest attack yet against growing doubts and criticism about a war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,056 members of the U.S. military. As casualties have climbed, Bush’s popularity has dropped. His approval rating now is at 37 percent in the latest AP-Ipsos poll, an all-time low point of his presidency.

Democrats in recent weeks have been accusing the White House of manipulating intelligence on Iraq and leaking classified information to discredit critics of the war.

Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted last month for obstructing justice, perjury and lying after a two-year investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

View from Democrats
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., quickly returned Bush’s criticism. “Its deeply regrettable that the president is using Veterans Day as a campaign-like attempt to rebuild his own credibility by tearing down those who seek the truth about the clear manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war,” Kennedy said in a statement.

“Instead of providing open and honest answers about how we will achieve success in Iraq and allow our troops to begin to come home,” Kennedy said, “the president reverted to the same manipulation of facts to justify a war we never should have fought.”

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said on Thursday Democrats were insisting that Americans “get the truth about why the White House cherry-picked and leaked intelligence to sell the war in Iraq.”

“The president may think this matter can be swept under the rug or pardoned away, but Democrats know America can do better,” Reid added.

The Bush administration’s main justification for the Iraq war was that it posed a threat because it had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, but none have been found.

Bush’s remarks brought a few jabs from fellow Republicans as well.

In a speech in Philadelphia, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., criticized how the war has been presented to Americans — both by the media and the White House. Afterward, Santorum said the war has been “less than optimal” and “maybe some blame could be laid” at the White House. “Certainly, mistakes were made,” Santorum said.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who is weighing a run for president in 2008, has said he agrees with Democrats who are pressing the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to move forward with an investigation into whether the administration manipulated intelligence.

“I was probably the main driver on the Republican side because I thought we needed the answers to whether intelligence was misused, intentionally or unintentionally,” Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald in a story published Friday.

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