Bush to Launch Series of Speeches on War

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — President Bush is kicking off another series of speeches to counter opposition to the war in Iraq, impatience with the rising U.S. death toll and anxiety about possible terrorist attacks.

Bush delivers the first speech Thursday to the annual American Legion convention in Salt Lake City. The appearances will continue through the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and culminate on Sept. 19 when Bush addresses the U.N. Security Council.

It is the third time in less than a year that Bush has made a series of speeches on Iraq and terrorism. They come two months before congressional elections and at a point when Bush’s approval rate is at 33 percent in the August AP-Ipsos poll. His approval on handling of Iraq also was at 33 percent in the poll.

’’They are not political speeches,’’ Bush said outside a Little Rock restaurant where he made a campaign stop with Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman who is running for governor against Democrat Mike Beebe. ’’They’re speeches about the future of this country and they’re speeches to make it clear that if we retreat before the job is done, this nation will become even more in jeopardy.

’’These are important times and I would seriously hope people wouldn’t politicize these issues that I’m going to talk about,’’ the president said. ’’We have a duty in this country to defeat terrorists. That’s why we’ll stay on the offensive to bring them to justice before they hurt us. And that’s why we’ll work to spread liberty in order to achieve the peace.’’

While Bush said Iraq and terrorism shouldn’t be politicized, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, only a day earlier, attacked critics of the administration’s war policies and suggested they suffered from ’’cynicism and moral confusion.’’

More than 2,630 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said he believes Iraqi forces can take over security with little coalition support within a year to 18 months, providing an opportunity for a drawdown of U.S. forces.

Bush attended a closed-door fundraiser in Little Rock for Hutchinson that attracted some 800 people to the home of former pro basketball player Joe Kleine. It was expected to raise an estimated $400,000 for Hutchinson’s campaign and the Republican Party in Arkansas.

Before arriving Wednesday evening in Salt Lake City, Bush was stopping in Nashville to attend a $2,100-a-plate fundraiser for Bob Corker’s Senate campaign.

Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock contributed to this report.

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