PresidentBush ridiculed critics of his anti-terrorism strategy Friday, saying they “keep changing” their positions in a transparent bid to elect Democrats in November.
“Critics say we’re failing — but their reasons keep changing,” Bush told the Reserve Officers Association in Washington. “In the first days of Operation Enduring Freedom, the critics warned that we were heading toward a ‘quagmire.’
“And then when the Taliban fell, and operations began in Iraq, the critics held up the multinational coalition in Afghanistan as a model, and said it showed that everything we were doing in Iraq was wrong. And now some of the critics who praised the multinational coalition we built in Afghanistan claim that the country is in danger of failing because we don’t have enough American troops there.”
Bush said he would stick to his guns in the war and “not try to constantly respond to the critics who change their positions.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said Democratic criticism of Bush is justified because he preemptively invaded Iraq instead of finishing the war in Afghanistan.
“To listen to the president this morning showed once again that he is in denial,” she said. “He is out of touch with reality when it comes to what needs to be done to fight and complete the war on terror.”
Bush called the recent leaking of a National Intelligence Estimate “an indication that we’re getting close to an election,” which drew laughter from the officers. Democrats said the document proved the Iraq war is creating more terrorists, while Republicans said it bolstered the argument that victory in Iraq is the only option.
“Some have selectively quoted from this document to make the case that by fighting the terrorists, by fighting them in Iraq we are making our people less secure here at home,” Bush said.
“This argument buys into the enemy’s propaganda that the terrorists attack us because we’re provoking them.”
He added: “Iraq is not the reason the terrorists are at war against us. They are at war against us because they hate everything America stands for.”
