The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 67/No. 32           September 22, 2003  
 
 
George Bush: U.S. government
will stay the course in Iraq
(front page)
 
BY PATRICK O’NEILL  
Placing Iraq within Washington’s larger “war on terrorism,” U.S. president George Bush stated in a nationally televised address September 7 that Washington will stay the course in maintaining and strengthening the occupation of the country. “Two years ago I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places,” Bush said. “Iraq is now the central front.” Emphasizing the open-ended character of the occupation, he drew a parallel with the U.S. occupation of Japan and Germany following World War II. “We committed years and resources to this cause,” he said. “America today accepts the challenge of helping Iraq in the same spirit, for their sake and our own.”

By his own account, some 130,000 U.S. troops are stationed in the country, along with 20,000 soldiers under the command of British and Polish officers.

The U.S. president addressed the arguments of liberal Democrats who say that the occupation threatens to become a quagmire. Such critics point to the increasing death toll among U.S. soldiers, 149 of whom have been killed since May 1, when Bush declared that “the United States and our allies have prevailed,” after U.S. forces toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

“The attacks you have heard and read about in the last few weeks have occurred predominantly in the central region of Iraq, between Baghdad and Tikrit,” Bush stated, “Saddam Hussein’s former stronghold.” Conditions are “generally stable” in the north and south, he asserted.

“We are staying on the offensive, with a series of enemy targets increasingly guided by intelligence given to us by Iraqi citizens,” Bush added. “Of the 55 most wanted leaders, 42 are dead or in custody. We’re sending a clear message: Anyone who seeks to harm our soldiers can know that our soldiers are hunting for them.”

The administration has mounted a renewed push for troops from France, Germany, and other imperialist powers, along with major semicolonial countries like India and Turkey, to be deployed in Iraq. “Our commanders have requested a third multinational division to serve in Iraq,” Bush stated. “I have directed Secretary of State Colin Powell to introduce a new [UN] Security Council resolution, which would authorize the creation of a multinational force in Iraq, to be led by America.”

Paris and Berlin have reportedly rejected Washington’s initial draft resolution. According to USA Today, these governments said that it “did not cede enough authority to the UN and an Iraqi government.”

Bush said that he would “soon submit to Congress a request for $87 billion,” 75 percent of which will cover “ongoing military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.”

Bush noted that Secretary of State Colin Powell would convene a “funding conference for the reconstruction of Iraq,” following a similar one for Afghanistan. He added, “Europe, Japan and states in the Middle East all will benefit from the success of freedom in the two countries, and they should contribute to that success.”  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home