Tuesday, September 21, 2004
The president argues that the world is a better place because of his policies.
NEW YORK (AP) -- President Bush, trying to soften his image overseas as a heavy-handed unilateralist, used his annual address to the United Nations to offer up a brighter vision of a planet with less hunger, disease and oppression.
Exactly six weeks before Election Day, Bush is equally concerned about his audience at home. In his speech today before the world body, Bush made a firm defense of his decision to invade Iraq, although violence is surging and U.S. casualties mounting 17 months after the president declared major combat operations over.
But unlike his speech to the United Nations last year, Bush did not devote the majority of his 35-minute address to Iraq and terrorism. His aim was to convince U.S. voters and a skeptical global audience that there is more to his foreign policy than grim warnings about terror and aggressive use of U.S. military force.
His message was that the world is a better place thanks to his policies, and will get better still if nations band together to cooperate with his initiatives.
Challenging task
He has his work here cut out for him: Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that from his point of view, the U.S.-led Iraq invasion was illegal.
Annan said that if there is one theme to the two-week ministerial meeting here, it's "the rule of law."
In something of a pre-emptive strike, Bush's Democratic rival, John Kerry, appeared at New York University on Monday to deliver a stinging attack on Bush's Iraq policy.
Kerry, contending the chaos in Iraq has made the United States less secure, urged the president to do a better job rallying allies, training Iraqi security forces, hastening reconstruction plans and ensuring Iraqi elections are conducted on time.
From the campaign trail in New Hampshire, Bush dismissed Kerry's four-point plan as proposing "exactly what we're currently doing."
Richard Holbrooke, U.N. ambassador during the Clinton administration, said on NBC's "Today" show today, "The fact is that those four goals which the president also has articulated are things that this administration has proved incapable of achieving."
Officials defend policies
Appearing on the same show, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice claimed progress despite the recent wave of car-bombings and hostage-takings.
She said that "there's no evidence" Iraq is falling into a state of civil war and that things are better than three months ago even though the Iraqi people "are facing a very tough and daring insurgency."
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