Bush Says U.S. More Secure, Honors War Dead
Bush says U.S. more secure, honors war dead
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But... But... I Thought The Mission Was Accomplished?
By Jim Wolf 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
ARLINGTON, Va. (Reuters) - Facing mounting casualties in Iraq, President Bush honored American war dead on Monday and vowed to complete the costly U.S. mission against Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Speaking at Arlington National Cemetery amid public doubts about his stewardship of the war, Bush claimed the United States was more secure because of the offensives he tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"The war on terror has brought great costs," Bush said after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, which contains the remains of unidentified U.S. troops from conflicts going back to World War One. Shortly before he spoke, an Iraqi aircraft crashed northeast of Baghdad with four Air Force personnel on board.
"For those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq, today is a day of last letters and fresh tears," he said. "Because of the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, two terror regimes are gone forever, freedom is on the march and America is more secure."
More than 1,600 Americans have been killed since Bush ousted Saddam in April 2003. Seventy U.S. troops have been killed in May, making it the deadliest month for the U.S. military since January when insurgents tried to derail the first post-Saddam elections in Iraq.
The United States has spent nearly $300 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11.
COMPLETE THE MISSION
"We must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives, by defeating the terrorists, advancing the cause of liberty and building a safer world," Bush said.
The president was accompanied to the grass field of white headstones -- the burial ground of more than 225,000 military heroes and veterans of every U.S. war -- by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Under nearly cloudless skies in the marble amphitheater, they paid the annual Memorial Day tribute to fallen U.S. forces before an audience of many veterans and their families, including U.S. Army Sgt. Brian Doyne, 25, who lost his left arm to a roadside bomb in Iraq in February.
"Freedom is worth any sacrifice," said Doyne, of Fayetteville, Georgia.
Rumsfeld said: "To their families, there are no sufficient words of comfort."
And as the nation saluted the U.S. war dead, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted the American military presence in Iraq would recede during Bush's second term and said he believed the Iraqi insurgency was in its final stages.
"I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time," he told CNN's "Larry King Live." "But I think the level of activity that we see today, from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."
A CBS News poll last week said 38 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, while 58 percent approved of his leadership in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism sparked by the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland)
