Pres. Bush Addresses Nation on Iraq, War on Terrorism

President Bush announced plans to ask Congress for $87 billion to fund military operations and reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan during a televised address to the nation.

The $87 billion emergency funding request would include $66 billion to fund military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere over the next year as well as support rebuilding efforts in the two countries, the president said.

The president outlined three main U.S. objectives in Iraq: Destroy the terrorists; enlist the support of other nations in securing a free Iraq; and help Iraqis assume responsibility for their own defense and their own future.

He urged the United Nations to support efforts to stabilize postwar Iraq, saying he had authorized Secretary of State Colin Powell to present a new resolution to the Security Council that would create a U.S.-led multinational force in the country.

“I recognize that not all of our friends agreed with our decision to enforce the Security Council resolutions and remove Saddam Hussein from power. Yet we cannot let past differences interfere with present duties,” he said.

“Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity, and the responsibility, to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation,” he added.

Mr. Bush said Secretary Powell would meet with representatives from many countries later this month to discuss funding for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and would hold a similar funding conference on Iraq next month.

“Europe, Japan and states in the Middle East all will benefit from the success of freedom in those two countries, and they should contribute to that success,” the president said.

The president called Iraq the “central front” in the war against global terrorism, blaming recent attacks on coalition forces in the country on fighters still loyal to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorists.

He also said the United States would not be intimidated by the violence. Some 149 Americans have died in Iraq since the president declared the end of major combat operations on May 1.

“The terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia, claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans we will run from a challenge,” the president said. “In this they are mistaken.”

President Bush listed successes in the war on terrorism in the nearly two years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, including “destroying the training camps of terror” in Afghanistan and capturing or killing “nearly two-thirds” of the al-Qaida terrorist network’s known leaders in raids and actions worldwide.

He concluded saying that America has been “tested” over the past 24 months and that “the dangers have not passed.”

“We accept the duties of our generation. We are active and resolute in our own defense,” the president said.

Earlier Sunday, top members of the Bush administration took to the airwaves ahead of the president’s address to discuss the U.S. role in postwar Iraq.

Powell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the ongoing efforts in Iraq will require more funding.

“It’s going to cost more, and there will be continued sacrifice on the part of our young men and women,” Powell said. “Hopefully the number of incidents will go down, and hopefully in the very near future we’ll get control of the security situation.”

Powell said the administration wants the United Nations to “play a vital role” in Iraq’s rebuilding and that negotiations continue for a new Security Council resolution that would allow more multinational involvement in the country.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice appearing on CNN’s “Late Edition,” saying the president believes the “cost of freedom and the cost of peace cannot be measured and that it is important that we put adequate resources to this task.”

“There’s a reason that foreign fighters are coming into Iraq. There is a reason that we’re seeing evidence — not really yet completely clear evidence — of terrorists trying to operate in Iraq,” Rice said. “They know that this is the central battle in the war on terrorism.”