President Bush used his Veterans Day address to criticize the anti-war movement and repeat the same arguments he has used to defend his decision to invade Iraq.
'The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges,' Bush claimed.
However, the president misspoke when he added, 'More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power.' He also denied allegations that his administration had manipulated intelligence in the march to war.
In truth, Congress authorized Bush to use force as a last resort after all other possibilities were exhausted. Subsequent evidence shows we were nowhere near that point when the president ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq and there was no evidence the government of Saddam Hussein was connected with al-Qaeda in any way.
The president then finished with his usual determination to stay the course, telling yet another military audience, 'We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory.'
Mr. Bush also used the occasion to criticize the Syrian government. He confronted Syrian dictator Bashar Assad on the arrest of pro-democracy activist Kamal Labwani and a recent speech by Assad regarding the U.N. investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Bush said Syria, 'must stop exporting violence and start importing democracy.'
