Home > Bush Reverses Himself, Says War on Terror Can Be Won
Bush Reverses Himself, Says War on Terror Can Be Won
by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 1 September 2004By Caren Bohan
NASHVILLE, Tenn. One day after saying the war on terror could not be won, President Bush sought on Tuesday to calm a political storm over his comments and said America would prevail.
On the second day of the Republican convention, Bush found himself on the defensive as the campaign of his Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, took aim at the president’s comments to a television interviewer suggesting the war on terror was not winnable.
In the interview broadcast on NBC’s "Today" show on Monday, Bush was asked if the war on terrorism would ever be won.
"I don’t think you can win it," he replied. "But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."
Bush used the occasion of a speech to the American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans group, to fight back against the Kerry team’s charge that he was taking a defeatist stance.
"We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start, but one that we will win," Bush told the group.
"It’s a different type of war. We may never sit down at a peace table, but make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win," he added.
Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer derided Bush’s latest remarks.
"What today showed is that George Bush might be able to give a speech saying he can win the war on terror. But he’s clearly got real doubts about his ability to do so and for good reason," Singer said.
Bush’s appearance at the American Legion was part of a tour of battleground states before he joins his fellow Republicans at the convention in New York on Wednesday, where he will be renominated the following day for the White House race on November 2.
Bush and Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, are aggressively courting the veterans’ vote. Kerry is slated to speak at the American Legion on Wednesday.
The Democratic senator had been pulling even with Bush among veterans in surveys after the Democratic convention in July. But polls suggest that attacks on Kerry by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth appear to have cut into the Democrat’s support among ex-soldiers.
Kerry has accused the Bush campaign of collaborating with the Swift Boat group, a charge the White House denies.
Bush has refused to condemn attack ads by the group, although he has said the he believed Kerry served honorably and was "more heroic" than him during the war.
Bush spent the war in the United States serving in the Texas Air National Guard. Some Democrats accuse Bush of going absent without leave, citing gaps in his attendance record.
With Bush in Tennessee was Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Bush’s onetime rival who is now his frequent companion on the campaign trail.
McCain, a Vietnam veteran himself who is highly popular among political independents, has been urging Bush to condemn the Swift Boat ads and told reporters on Tuesday he would continue to push that point with the president.
Protesters gathered outside the Nashville event carrying signs that read, "Bush the True Terrorist" and "Dubya duped ya." (Additional reporting by Steve Holland) (Reuters)