Bush's battle cry wows Nat'l Guard
New York Daily News | 2/18/04 | KENNETH R. BAZINET
WASHINGTON - President Bush swooped into a National Guard base yesterday to deliver a chest-thumping defense of the Iraq war and his stewardship of the fight against terror.
"My resolve is the same as it was on the day when I walked in the rubble of the twin towers," he told National Guard members and their families in Louisiana, sounding a message he's banking will get him reelected.
"I will not relent until this threat to America is removed - and neither will you," he said to wild whoops from a sea of green uniforms.
Bush, whose own Guard service has been called into question by Democrats, seemed defiant in choosing the base. Two days earlier, the Republican crowed about his Guard service at the Daytona 500 as he inspected a stock car sponsored by the service.
"What a week. First, NASCAR. And today, Fort Polk, La.," Bush said.
Bush used his presidential pulpit to deliver his most spirited defense yet of his decision to go to war.
"My administration looked at intelligence information, and we saw danger," he said. "Members of Congress looked at the same intelligence, and they saw danger."
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used "weapons of mass destruction against his own people," he added, and since 1998, when Democrat Bill Clinton was President, it has been "the policy of the United States to change the regime in Iraq."
The President said the U.S. decided after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks it was time to play hardball with despots like Saddam, challenging him to show what he did with the banned weapons he had in the past.
"Saddam Hussein chose defiance. And we had a choice of our own: Either take the word of a madman or take action to defend America and the world. Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time," Bush said.
Fort Polk is home to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, a workhorse unit in Iraq that has lost 12 member there. Of the 538 G.I.s slain in the country, 43 have been Guardsmen. Bush made no mention of a pending probe of prewar intelligence.
After his battle cry, Democrats avoided attacking Bush over his National Guard duty in the 1970s, instead taking aim at the disruptions he has caused Guard families by sending weekend warriors to Iraq.
"This administration has overextended our troops, broken his promise to America's veterans, deployed the National Guard indefinitely while leaving their families with financial hardship," Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry said in a statement.
But Bush is banking on convincing America that the sacrifices have been worth it. "We have made America more secure," he told the crowd of more than 5,000.
New York Daily News | 2/18/04 | KENNETH R. BAZINET
WASHINGTON - President Bush swooped into a National Guard base yesterday to deliver a chest-thumping defense of the Iraq war and his stewardship of the fight against terror.
"My resolve is the same as it was on the day when I walked in the rubble of the twin towers," he told National Guard members and their families in Louisiana, sounding a message he's banking will get him reelected.
"I will not relent until this threat to America is removed - and neither will you," he said to wild whoops from a sea of green uniforms.
Bush, whose own Guard service has been called into question by Democrats, seemed defiant in choosing the base. Two days earlier, the Republican crowed about his Guard service at the Daytona 500 as he inspected a stock car sponsored by the service.
"What a week. First, NASCAR. And today, Fort Polk, La.," Bush said.
Bush used his presidential pulpit to deliver his most spirited defense yet of his decision to go to war.
"My administration looked at intelligence information, and we saw danger," he said. "Members of Congress looked at the same intelligence, and they saw danger."
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used "weapons of mass destruction against his own people," he added, and since 1998, when Democrat Bill Clinton was President, it has been "the policy of the United States to change the regime in Iraq."
The President said the U.S. decided after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks it was time to play hardball with despots like Saddam, challenging him to show what he did with the banned weapons he had in the past.
"Saddam Hussein chose defiance. And we had a choice of our own: Either take the word of a madman or take action to defend America and the world. Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time," Bush said.
Fort Polk is home to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, a workhorse unit in Iraq that has lost 12 member there. Of the 538 G.I.s slain in the country, 43 have been Guardsmen. Bush made no mention of a pending probe of prewar intelligence.
After his battle cry, Democrats avoided attacking Bush over his National Guard duty in the 1970s, instead taking aim at the disruptions he has caused Guard families by sending weekend warriors to Iraq.
"This administration has overextended our troops, broken his promise to America's veterans, deployed the National Guard indefinitely while leaving their families with financial hardship," Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry said in a statement.
But Bush is banking on convincing America that the sacrifices have been worth it. "We have made America more secure," he told the crowd of more than 5,000.
