Bush rejects pullout

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — President George W. Bush on Saturday rejected calls for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and tried to counter growing impatience with the war by calling it a “vital test” for American security.
“The mission isn’t easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Coming under renewed attack for his rationale for invading Iraq in March 2003, Bush described the conflict as part of the broader US war on terrorism. He said stabilising Iraq and quelling the insurgency were important for American interests.

“Some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world’s terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror,” Bush said.

“By making their stand in Iraq, the terrorists have made Iraq a vital test for the future security of our country and the free world,” he added.

A congressional resolution proposed this week calls on the Bush administration to develop a strategy for removing all US troops from Iraq and to begin the withdrawal by Oct. 1, 2006. Two Republicans are among its backers.

Bush’s radio address zeroed in on Iraq and the economy, two issues he plans emphasise in coming weeks.

On the economy, Bush said his tax-cutting policies had put the United States “on the track to growth.” He talked of his Social Security effort in the address, but put first his drive for ratification of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement and the push to rewrite US energy policy.

The emphasis on those topics marks a shift from the US president’s concentration this year on the campaign to overhaul Social Security — a push that has proven unpopular.

US Rep. Bob Etheridge of North Carolina, delivering the Democratic response to Bush’s address, accused the US president of putting Social Security under attack with his plan and said his proposals would hit farm families especially hard.

“Farm families have tight budgets, and most don’t have access to employer retirement accounts such as 401K plans,” he said. “In fact, three out of four farmers fund their own retirement. They depend on Social Security when the crop yield is low or the weather is bad.”

While nervousness over Social Security appears to have hurt Bush’s poll numbers, concern about the Iraq war also seems to have contributed to the slide.

Fifty-one per cent of Americans believe the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, according to a New York Times/CBS poll published on Friday.

Bush went to war warning of a threat from Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, but those were never found. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Bush had also warned of links between Saddam Hussein’s government and terrorist groups.