Bush Assails Saddam, Cites Freedom Peril

President Bush said today that America’s freedom and “way of life” are at stake in the Persian Gulf confrontation with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, as defense officials said Bush might mobilize as many as 80,000 reserve troops to bolster the U.S. military buildup against the Iraqi leader.

Defending his decision to send thousands of combat troops to secure control over vital oil fields, Bush denounced Hussein’s “ruinous policies of war,” and added, “We are striking a blow for the principle that ‘might does not make right.’ ”

Bush made his comments in a speech to Pentagon employees, while Jordan’s King Hussein was in the United States in advance of a meeting on Thursday with the President. The Jordanian monarch hopes to try his hand as a peace broker.

While Bush has said he will hear the king out, both the harsh tenor of his words and the continued military buildup seemed to lay thorny ground for diplomacy.

“Our objectives remain clear--the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Iraqi forces from Kuwait, the restoration of Kuwait’s legitimate government, the security and stability of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf and the protection of the lives of American citizens abroad,” Bush said in a fighting speech to troops, military brass and workers outside the Pentagon.

He called the multinational military deployment to the Persian Gulf one of the most important allied efforts since World War II and described it in terms of a righteous crusade.

He underlined his point with a personal attack on the Iraqi president.

“Saddam Hussein would have us believe that his unprovoked invasion of a friendly Arab nation is a struggle between Arabs and Americans,” Bush said. “That is clearly false.

“It is Saddam who lied to his Arab neighbors. It is Saddam who invaded an Arab state. It is Saddam who now threatens the Arab nation (of Saudi Arabia).”

As Bush rallied the troops, yet another giant U.S. aircraft carrier--the John F. Kennedy--set sail from Norfolk, Va., to join an armada of more than 40 U.S. warships now in or near the Gulf. The Kennedy’s arrival will put four carriers within striking distance of Baghdad.

In a major new element of that buildup, defense officials said today that Bush is considering mobilizing up to 80,000 military reservists for support duty. Experts said that would be the biggest such call-up since the 1961 Berlin crisis when the Soviet-backed East Germans put up “the Wall” that is now being reduced to rubble.

The officials said Bush might reach a decision on the reserve mobilization proposal by the weekend.