Bush vows to remain on course

During difficult questions, he often lapsed into awkward pauses.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- President Bush signaled Tuesday night that he expects to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and vowed that insurgents leading a violent uprising against the American occupation will not "run us out of Iraq."
In a prime-time news conference -- his first since the war in Iraq began 13 months ago -- Bush mixed an expression of concern about the killings and lawlessness in Iraq with an absolute certainty that his course of action is the correct one.
"There's no question it's been a tough, tough series of weeks for the American people," he said. "It's been really tough for the families. I understand that. It's been tough on this administration. But we're doing the right thing."
Scaling back more of his upbeat assessments of the situation in Iraq, Bush presented what he called a "somber" portrait of recent events in Iraq and pledged new actions to ease the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis.
He said that he will dispatch Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Iraq to help negotiate the transition and that he will seek a new U.N. Security Council resolution to increase international participation in Iraq after the transfer of power.
But though acknowledging more adversity in Iraq than he has in recent days, Bush held to his view that the rebellion in Iraq is relatively small.
Those responsible "want to run us out of Iraq and destroy the democratic hopes of the Iraqi people," he said. "The violence we have seen is a power grab by these extreme and ruthless elements. It's not a civil war. It's not a popular uprising. Most of Iraq is relatively stable. Most Iraqis by far reject violence and oppose dictatorship."
Questions
Bush endured three-quarters of an hour of consistently sharp questioning from reporters on just two subjects: the uprising and power transfer in Iraq and his actions before and after the 2001 attacks, which have come under renewed scrutiny because of the independent commission investigation the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Though he began with a confident, 17-minute overview of the situation in Iraq, he seemed out of sorts at times as he searched for words to answer often hostile questions and sometimes lapsed into awkward pauses.
Of the U.S. presence in Iraq, he said: "They're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied, either." Gone were the banter and cheer that have graced Bush's news conferences in the past; instead, he seemed determined to yield nothing and to avoid any hint of doubts about the centerpiece of his foreign policy in this election year.
While acknowledging grief over the losses of Sept. 11, Bush said that there was no reason to apologize for the government's performance before the attacks. Several questioners quizzed him about misstatements about Iraq and errors in intelligence, but he declined to acknowledge any mistake. When one questioner asked about his biggest mistake since the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush shook his head twice as he searched for an answer.
"I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet," Bush said. "I would've gone into Afghanistan the way we went into Afghanistan. Even knowing what I know today about the stockpiles of weapons, I still would've called upon the world to deal with Saddam Hussein."
Troops in Iraq
The president gave his clearest indication yet that he will increase the U.S. troop level in Iraq from the current 135,000, rather than decrease it to 115,000, as had been planned. He said Army Gen. John Abizaid, who is overseeing Iraq operations, "is clearly indicating that he may want more troops. It's coming up through the chain of command. And if that's what he wants, that's what he gets."
About 700 insurgents have been killed by U.S. troops since the beginning of this month, and about 80 coalition troops -- almost all Americans -- have died across Iraq.
Bush's prepared remarks included a passionate statement that the June 30 hand over will not be changed.
"Were the coalition to step back from the June 30th pledge, many Iraqis would question our intentions and feel their hopes betrayed," he said. "And those in Iraq who trade in hatred and conspiracy theories would find a larger audience and gain a stronger hand. We will not step back from our pledge. On June 30th, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands."
He also returned to his theme that success in Iraq has become paramount for American security. "Now is the time, and Iraq is the place, in which the enemies of the civilized world are testing the will of the civilized world," he said. "We must not waver."
And, he asserted, "every enemy of America in the world would celebrate, proclaiming our weakness and decadence, and using that victory to recruit a new generation of killers."
Bush tied the violence in Iraq to a string of terror attacks across two decades, from the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut to the train bombings in Madrid. In linking all such attacks, rather than merely Al-Qaida attacks, Bush grouped many disparate Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups into "the same ideology of murder" -- a grouping that has caused irritation in the Muslim world.