Bush Says War Is Worth Sacrifice

Address Urges Public to Back His Iraq Policy

By Peter Baker and Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 29, 2005; Page A01

FORT BRAGG, N.C., June 28 — President Bush appealed to the American public Tuesday night to remember “the lessons of September 11th” ….

Surrounding himself with uniformed soldiers and standing before a backdrop emblazoned with American flags, Bush portrayed the two-year-old war in Iraq as the logical extension of a larger struggle that began when hijackers slammed passenger jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001. …

Bush invoked Sept. 11 five times in his speech and referred to it by implication several more times. Although he has previously agreed with investigators that there is “no evidence” of a link between Saddam Hussein’s government and the attacks masterminded by Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda, he used much of his speech to depict the militants in Iraq as the same breed of Islamic terrorist who struck the United States. The White House titled his remarks a discussion on the “War on Terror,” not Iraq.

“This war reached our shores on September 11th, 2001,” Bush said. …

“The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11th …”

[T]errorists “are trying to shake our will in Iraq, just as they tried to shake our will on September 11th, 2001.” …

Bush’s insistence that waging the fight in Iraq is containing terrorists who might otherwise strike in America is also fueling argument. As critics see it, the Iraq war is creating a breeding ground for terrorists.