Bush says ‘America can and must win’

Five years into a costly war in Iraq that has lost the support of the majority of Americans, President Bush insisted Wednesday that “this is a fight America can and must win.”

The president, speaking on the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, contended as he has before that the Iraq conflict remained central to a broader “global war on terror.” Bush also said that the “surge” of U.S. troops he ordered last year was working – with violence and casualties curtailed.

Although he praised the return of some of those troops as “a return on our success in Iraq,” Bush said he would not permit any further withdrawals that could jeopardize security gains there.

After a loss of 3,992 American military men and women in Iraq and more than $500 billion committed to fighting in the war-racked country, the president’s critics in Congress, including two Democratic candidates for president, are calling for the start of a troop withdrawal. But Bush says such calls are tantamount to retreat.

“War critics can no longer credibly argue that we’re losing in Iraq – so now they argue the war costs too much,” he said. “No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure. But those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies.”

Democratic congressional leaders have failed to force a quicker withdrawal of troops. They hope this fall’s presidential election will deliver a Democrat to the White House.

“Even as we begin the sixth year of this war,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday, “all the president seems able to offer Americans is more of the same perpetual disregard for the costs and consequences of stubbornly staying the course in Iraq.”

Congressional Democrats have had several chances to block funding for the war but have been unable to override the president’s vetoes.

Bush said that the U.S. offensive in Iraq had weakened Al Qaeda and offered hope for an “Arab uprising” against the terrorism network’s still-at-large leader, Osama bin Laden, who helped plot the Sept. 11 attacks, including one on the Pentagon, where Bush spoke.

Yet war critics maintain that Al Qaeda had no foothold in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion. They also say the war has made Iraq more dangerous than it was before.