Bush to stay in Iraq, links withdrawal to security

US President George W. Bush said the United States has a "flexible and dynamic" strategy for achieving victory in Iraq and will keep forces there until victory is achieved.

He defined victory as the time when Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens against terrorists and insurgents who threaten its path to democracy.

Speaking at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, November 30, Bush said that the strategy is comprised of three elements Ð political, economic and security Ð and involves helping Iraqis build inclusive, democratic institutions, rebuild their infrastructure, reform their economy, and develop a security force that "can take responsibility for the safety and security of their citizens without major foreign assistance."

The enemy, he said, is a combination of ordinary citizens, mostly Sunnis who are unhappy with the loss of their dominant status under democratic change, loyalists to the former regime of Saddam Hussein who seek a return to power, and terrorists with direct or indirect ties to the terrorist group al-Qaida.

The president said he believes the first and largest group, the rejectionists, can be persuaded over time to support a democratic, federal government that is strong enough to protect minority rights. The Saddamists, he continued, lack popular support and can be marginalized and defeated.

The terrorists, he said, are foreigners coming to Iraq from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and other countries, who have nothing to offer but death and chaos. "Just last week," he noted, "they massacred Iraqi children and their parents at a toy-giveaway outside an Iraqi hospital."

Bush said the terrorists' objective, as stated by their leader, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, is to drive out coalition forces and gain control of Iraq to use as a base to "overthrow moderate governments in the Middle East to try to establish a totalitarian Islamic empire that reaches from Indonesia to Spain.

"Against this adversary there is only one effective response: we will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory," he said.

The president acknowledged that the administration's strategy has not always gone smoothly, but said that it had learned from its experiences and made changes that have resulted in major progress over the past year. He spoke in particular of the successes of the Iraqi security forces, which are taking the lead in more operations and have gained control of more territory from the insurgents, noting that changes in the training and the equipment these security forces receive from coalition partners played an important role in their improved performance.

Critics, who charge that Iraq has only one battalion capable of operating completely independent of coalition forces, misunderstand the designation, the president said. Complete independence requires not only that the battalion be able to fight on its own, but that it have the ability to provide its own logistics, airlift, intelligence and command and control, he explained. "[T]here are some battalions from NATO militaries that would not be able to meet this standard," Bush said.

The president also answered those who maintain he has no plan other than to stay on the current course.

"If by 'stay the course' they mean we will not allow the terrorists to break our will, they're right. If by 'stay the course' they mean we will not permit al-Qaida to turn Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban -- a safe haven for terrorism and a launching pad for attacks on America -- they're right as well. If by 'stay the course' they mean that we're not learning from our experiences or adjusting our tactics to meet the challenges on the ground, then they are flat wrong."

"America will not abandon Iraq," he said. "We will not turn that country over to the terrorists and put the American people at risk. Iraq will be a free nation and a strong ally in the Middle East, and this will add to the security of the American people."

Meantime, gunmen attacks continued in Iraq to claim the lives of more people, amid expectations from American and Iraqi officials that these operations will be escalated two weeks before the elections.