Fred Harteis News Articles - President Bush pushed back today at critics on both the left and the right who have urged that American troops be withdrawn before they are caught in a civil war, arguing in the first of a new series of speeches that his strategy is working and declaring, "We will not lose our nerve."
But Mr. Bush acknowledged that the conflict that began three years ago, following the American-backed invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, had taken another turn toward sectarian violence. Twice he used the word "civil war" in his speech, but only to describe the objectives of insurgents, Saddamists and Al Qaeda members, not to characterize the current state of events.
"I wish I could tell you that the violence is waning and that the road ahead will be smooth," Mr. Bush said in a speech before the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an institute created after the Sept. 11 attacks that has been supportive of Mr. Bush's agenda. "It will not. There will be more tough fighting and more days of struggle, and we will see more images of chaos and carnage in the days and months to come."
The speech comes at a moment when Mr. Bush's aides are concerned both by the acceleration of sectarian violence and the fast-ebbing support for the war in the
But Mr. Bush did not back away from the standards he set last year for measuring when the time is right to begin withdrawing, saying that the Iraqi government must be prepared to defend itself.
Mr. Bush described last month's attack on the Golden Mosque in Sammarra as "a clear attempt to ignite a civil war. "
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