A Defiant but Upbeat Bush Goes on Road : President: Hussein will learn that ‘what we say goes,’ the chief executive tells cheering crowds at three military bases.

Taking his upbeat, patriotic message on the road Friday for the first time since the Persian Gulf War began, President Bush said angrily that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has an “endless appetite for evil” and that when the war ends, “we will have taught a dangerous dictator . . . that what we say goes.”

Bush insisted, as he has previously in private, that he will only begin a ground war in the Gulf “if necessary, and when we decide the time is right.”

Speaking to the cheering families of soldiers poised for combat in Saudi Arabia, the President said: “We will conduct this conflict on our terms, on our timetable. Not on Saddam Hussein’s timetable.”

Visiting three East Coast military bases--Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, and this army post in southeast Georgia--the President echoed the assessment of his military commanders, declaring that the “air superiority” of the allied coalition “is an established fact now. The Iraqi air force is no longer a factor.”

And, keeping up his defiant tone, Bush said when asked if Hussein is massing his forces in southern Kuwait: “He’s making a big mistake.”

The day was carefully planned for the President, placing him in the midst of welcoming crowds and a pastiche of symbols of America at war: Here, a sea of hand-held American flags flying in front of him; there, a display of some of the Marine Corps’ most awesome fighting machines--F/A-18 fighter jets and AV-8B Harriers, Cobra helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles. And everywhere, yellow ribbons.

At each stop, Bush delivered the same message: Saddam Hussein will be defeated, the job won’t be easy and the country stands fully behind the half-million troops fighting the desert war.

The war against Iraq, he said, “will require time and sacrifice, but we will prevail--make no mistake about that.”

“And when we win, and we will, we will have taught a dangerous dictator--and any tyrant tempted to follow in his footsteps--that the U.S. has a new credibility and that what we say goes,” he said.

“There is no place for lawless aggression in the Persian Gulf and in this new world order that we seek to create. And we mean it, and he will understand that when the day is done,” the President added.

In a private moment, Bush visited with the wives of two men listed as prisoners of war in Iraq and two others who are listed as missing, and with a number of their children.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said afterward: “The President was very impressed with their courage. They were all very supportive and said their husbands believed very strongly in what they were doing.”

Bush, he said, “wanted to pass on the words of the President that we are doing everything we could to find their husbands.”

With their troops, airplanes, helicopters and tanks deployed, the bases seemed deserted, save for the crowds assembled to hear the President. Ramps and hangars normally crowded with aircraft were bare--their war machines dispatched on their missions.

At the Air Force base, yellow ribbons were tied around the trunks of towering pines in a grove where, despite the frigid weather of early February, it was picnic time. Bush spent about 15 minutes at a picnic table, munching pork barbecue, coleslaw, hush puppies and potato salad with, among others, 6-year-old Michael Langlais, whose grandfather is a staff sergeant deployed in Operation Desert Storm.

The crowd of several thousand was made up overwhelmingly of young mothers and their toddlers and school-age children. Most of the 4,500 airmen at the base have been sent to the Gulf with the 335th and 336th squadrons of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing, which fly F-15E Eagles, and with two refueling units.

Recalling for the family members the standing ovations he received Tuesday night in his State of the Union address when he delivered verbal salutes to the deployed troops and the families left behind, Bush said:

“I hope that Saddam Hussein in his bunker somewhere in Baghdad saw every single minute of it. And if he did, maybe he now understands that we are a nation united in support of our troops.

“As each day passes, Iraq’s war machine, thanks to many of your loved ones, is being systematically destroyed by our allied military forces,” Bush told the Air Force families.

The President spent less time delivering his speeches than he did shaking hands, patting toddlers thrust at him by mothers and signing dozens of pictures of service personnel in the Gulf that were held up by spouses or girlfriends.

On his right wrist he put on a blue metal bracelet given to him by one woman. It bore the name of Airman 1st Class Robert R. Mickle Jr. and the words “Desert Shield.”

When Denise Coyle sobbed as she held up a picture of her husband, who she said volunteered for Persian Gulf duty in August, the President hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

In each speech, the President made special mention of the children whose parents are serving in the Gulf.

At Ft. Stewart, he pointed out Michael, Sioban and Martin Walker and said, “Their mom and dad are both now serving in Saudi Arabia, and they’ve been living with their baby-sitter.

“I know it’s been tough. It may get tougher,” he said to the children in the audience. “Keep in mind that no matter how much you depend on your parents, your country depends on them, too. . . . Your moms and dads are the heroes.”

As he tries to return to a more normal schedule, the President is beginning to plan a number of out-of-town trips. Until Friday, he had not been aboard Air Force One in nearly two months--the longest period he has remained in Washington, with the exception of visits to Camp David, Md., since taking office.

And, for his first trip since the war began, Bush was met by friendly crowds as he visited the string of military bases. Indeed, it resembled the sort of travel President Lyndon B. Johnson followed at the height of the Vietnam War, when any appearance beyond those at military bases risked confrontations with anti-war demonstrators. Indeed, the last presidential visit to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was by LBJ. Bush, however, is planning non-military trips, beginning with a visit to New York City next week.

After the three stops Friday, he flew to Hobe Sound, Fla., for a brief visit at his mother’s winter residence, before heading north to spend the weekend at Camp David.

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