SALT LAKE CITY, 23 August 2005 — After more than a week out of the public eye, President Bush left the seclusion of his Texas ranch yesterday to remind Americans why he thinks they must not give up on peace and stability in Iraq.
Bush chose the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Republican-friendly Utah as the site for the first of two speeches this week, both to reaffirm his plan to stay the course despite the recent focus on problems in Iraq. The second comes Wednesday to a National Guard group in Idaho.
Bush has not left his ranch since Aug. 13. Meanwhile, anti-war protesters camped nearby took the limelight, complete with a Sunday evening concert by folk singer Joan Baez.
Also, a leading Republican senator and prospective presidential candidate — Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel — said the war in Iraq has destabilized the Middle East and is looking more like the Vietnam conflict in which he fought a generation ago.
Bush’s Salt Lake City speech was scheduled just a couple of hours before Iraqi officials faced a deadline for parliamentary approval of a new constitution. They missed the initial deadline last week.
Bush’s former presidential rival, Sen. John Kerry, said yesterday the veterans at the VFW and elsewhere deserve straight answers about the situation in Iraq.
“When will he deliver to the nation and those sacrificing so much in Iraq a concrete plan for peace and victory?” the Massachusetts Democrat and Vietnam veteran said he wanted to know.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, Bush said that as with past conflicts, the war on terror requires great sacrifice. He offered his condolences for the families of fallen soldiers.
He didn’t mention Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who started the protest vigil outside his ranch.
In an ad airing in Salt Lake City to coincide with Bush’s visit, Sheehan pleaded for a meeting with him and accused him of lying to the American people about Iraq’s development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to Al-Qaeda terrorists.
One station, ABC affiliate KTVX, refused to run the ad, saying it could be offensive to the community.
An anti-war rally was planned near the convention site, but some VFW delegates said they considered it disrespectful to veterans.
Bush has strong support in Utah, where he received nearly 70 percent of the vote last fall. But nationwide polls find the public growing more skeptical about his handling of the war.
Hagel, who received two Purple Hearts and other military honors for his service in Vietnam, said Sunday the United States needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq. He told ABC’s “This Week” that “stay the course” is not a policy.
“By any standard, when you analyze 2 12 years in Iraq...we’re not winning,” he said.
Other Republican senators appearing on Sunday news shows advocated remaining in Iraq until the mission set by Bush is completed, but they also noted that the public is becoming more and more concerned and needs to be reassured.
The army’s top general, Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker, told The Associated Press on Saturday that his service is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq — well over 100,000 — for four more years as part of preparations for a worst-case scenario.
Hagel described the army contingency plan as “complete folly.”
“I don’t know where he’s going to get these troops,” the senator said. “There won’t be any National Guard left...no Army Reserve left...there is no way America is going to have 100,000 troops in Iraq, nor should it, in four years.”
