Five years on, Bush vows victory in Iraq

WASHINGTON—US President George W. Bush on Wednesday defended his decision to go to war against Iraq five years ago, vowing no retreat as he promised the battle against extremists would end in victory.

“Five years into this battle, there’s an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me,” Bush said at the Pentagon.

“Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win,” he maintained, referring to the late Iraqi dictator.

As he spoke scores of protestors gathered just a few blocks away in Washington calling for an end to the war in which nearly 4,000 US soldiers have died along with tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

Bush launched “Operation Iraqi Freedom” at 21:30 pm on March 19, 2003 in the United States, when it was already 5:30 am in Baghdad on March 20, with a bombing blitz dubbed “shock and awe” by the American military.

Five years on, Iraqis and US forces still face daily attacks from insurgent gangs and Islamist militants, and the fighting between armed factions from both sides of Iraq’s Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide rages on.

“The men and women who crossed into Iraq five years ago removed a tyrant, liberated a country, and rescued millions from unspeakable horrors,” Bush said.

And he signalled there would be no swift end to his policy of keeping troops in Iraq for the time being, with about 158,000 US forces fighting a bloody insurgency in what has become America’s second longest war after Vietnam.

“We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast. The terrorists and extremists step in,” the president warned.

“They fill vacuums, establish safe havens, and use them to spread chaos and carnage,” he said.

The US commander-in-chief now leaves office in January, bequeathing to his successor an intractable military and political stalemate.

By the most conservative tally, the war in Iraq has already cost the United States more than $400 billion and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has argued the total bill could surpass $3 trillion.

In his speech, Bush acknowledged the war has “come at a high cost in lives and treasure.”

“There’s still hard work to be done in Iraq. The gains we’ve made are fragile and reversible, but on this anniversary, the American people should know that since the surge began, the level of violence is significantly down, civilian deaths are down, sectarian killings are down,” Bush said.

And he vowed, “the battle in Iraq will end in victory.”

Vice President Dick Cheney marked the anniversary with a two-day surprise visit to Iraq this week, during which he repeatedly denounced calls from the White House’s Democratic critics to draw down US forces.

In an interview Wednesday, Cheney, one of the key architects of the war, said US strategy in Iraq must not be “blown off course.”

Queried on ABC television about polls showing that about two-thirds of Americans believe that the war was not worth fighting, Cheney’s first response was “So?”

Asked whether he cared what the US public thought, Cheney replied: “No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”

The war has been one of the top issues on the campaign trail as Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight to be the party’s nominee in the November elections to stand against Republican John McCain.

Five years on the war remains deeply unpopular here, even though many Americans are increasingly more preoccupied with the state of the nation’s ailing economy than the conflict.

Both Obama and Clinton have pledged to end the war, against McCain’s steadfast support of the Bush administration. And Bush’s popularity ratings have sunk to record lows.

Anti-war rallies were planned in Washington, New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco on Wednesday.

In the US capital, some 33 people were arrested in front of entrances to the Internal Revenue Service, organizers and media reported, as demonstrators sought to focus attention on taxpayers’ money that bankrolls the war.

“This war needs to end and it needs to end now,” Leslie Cagan, national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, told AFP. “I think people are looking for new ways to express their opposition.”

Iraq war protesters make selves heard in Chicago and elsewhere on anniversary of invasion

Kate Caleal has two friends who are fighting in Iraq. She wants them to come home now.

So the Rogers Park resident joined about 2,200 other anti-war demonstrators Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, at a rally in Federal Plaza and a subsequent march through downtown Chicago calling for an end to a conflict that has gone on longer than World War II.

“We as individuals have power. I’m exhibiting that power. [Government officials] don’t speak for us,” said Caleal, 22, as she held up a tree branch attached to a pizza box with “Stop the slaughter” and “You’re killing my brothers and sisters” written on it. “We need more of this, people standing up and speaking out against this,” she said.
The downtown protest Wednesday was one of many across the Chicago area and the nation against and in support of U.S. military involvement in Iraq. On Wednesday morning, a group gathered outside Soldier Field to show support for U.S. troops in Iraq. Another group of anti-war protesters held an evening candlelight vigil in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.

In Washington, at least 30 anti-war protesters were arrested Wednesday as they attempted to block access to Internal Revenue Service offices.

Wednesday night’s rally and march is part of an effort to pressure politicians to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, said Andy Thayer, a member of one of the rally’s chief organizers, Chicago’s 5th Year Anti-War Coalition.

“The main thing is that the politicians have failed to stop this war,” said Thayer, 47. “We need a very strong militant domestic peace movement.”

He said the war in Iraq is similar to the Vietnam War because both wars were “built on lies.”

There were no disturbances or arrests at the downtown march.

At the Wednesday morning rally in Soldier Field, Ald. James Balcer (11th) stood in front of a military monument at the north end of Soldier Field and announced plans to petition the City Council for a memorial to honor American soldiers who serve in the war on terrorism.

More than 140 soldiers from Illinois have died in this war, said Balcer, a former Marine who served in Vietnam. Hundreds of Chicago police officers, firefighters and residents have been deployed.

This has nothing to do with politics, he added.

“We’re here to support the troops,” Balcer said. “This memorial will be important.”

Balcer will present the proposed resolution at the next City Council meeting April 9. If it is approved, Balcer expects a committee to be selected to determine the design and location of the memorial.

Standing behind Balcer were a handful of supporters with military ties. Standing tall in the middle of the group was a soldier who had lost an eye.

Jim Frazier, a member of the mayor’s Memorial Day committee, talked about his son’s dedication to the military. Jacob Frazier, an Air Force staff sergeant, died in Afghanistan in March 2003. Jacob Frazier, 24, was serving as a tactical air controller embedded with the Green Beret army unit.

He wanted to hunt down Osama bin Laden personally and died doing what he loved, Frazier said.

“I’m very honored, and I choose to honor our troops, men and women who take an oath and know they will possibly go in harms way,” Frazier said. “They do so because they believe in the mission.”

In Washington, protesters outside the IRS said they don’t believe liberating Iraq should be a U.S. mission.

Ashalyn Sims, 20, a Howard University student, said that she had been concerned about the United States going to war with Iraq from the start. At the time, both of her parents were in the armed services, and Sims was living on a military base in Hungary. But she said she only started protesting the war in the last year.

Sims said that her mother was supportive of Sims’ involvement in anti-war protests. “These are my mom’s Army pants,” Sims said, showing off the green camouflage she was wearing.

Organizers of the protest targeted the IRS because the agency allocates money to the Pentagon to pay for the war, they said.