Aug 30, 2006 4:39 pm US/Pacific
Bush Sets Out On Iraq Support Tour
President Stumps For 19 Days; Says Speeches Are Not Political
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CBS News) ―
President George W. Bush is kicking off another series of speeches to counter opposition to the war in Iraq, impatience with the rising U.S. death toll and anxiety about possible terrorist attacks.
Mr. Bush delivers the first speech Thursday to the annual American Legion convention in Salt Lake City. The appearances will continue through the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and culminate on Sept. 19 when the president addresses the U.N. Security Council.
It is the third time in less than a year that Mr. Bush has made a series of speeches on Iraq and terrorism. They come two months before congressional elections and at a point when Mr. Bush's approval rate is at 33 percent in the August AP-Ipsos poll. His approval on handling of Iraq also was at 33 percent in the poll.
"They are not political speeches," Mr. Bush said outside a Little Rock restaurant where he made a campaign stop with Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman who is running for governor against Democrat Mike Beebe.
"They're speeches about the future of this country and they're speeches to make it clear that if we retreat before the job is done, this nation will become even more in jeopardy.
President Bush's appearance at the American legion comes on the heels of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's fiery speech before the same group.
On Tuesday, Rumsfeld enraged congressional Democrats when he alluded to critics of the Bush administration's war policies in terms associated with the failure to stop Nazism in the 1930s.
The president said Wednesday, "These are important times and I would seriously hope people wouldn't politicize these issues that I'm going to talk about."
"We have a duty in this country to defeat terrorists. That's why we'll stay on the offensive to bring them to justice before they hurt us. And that's why we'll work to spread liberty in order to achieve the peace."
A relative lull in the violence in Iraq was broken Wednesday, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.
A roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad's oldest and largest wholesale market district, killing at least 24 people and wounding 35, part of a surge that left 52 dead, authorities said.
More than 2,630 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said he believes Iraqi forces can take over security with little coalition support within a year to 18 months, providing an opportunity for a drawdown of U.S. forces.
Mr. Bush attended a closed-door fundraiser in Little Rock for Hutchinson that attracted some 800 people to the home of former pro basketball player Joe Kleine. It was expected to raise an estimated $400,000 for Hutchinson's campaign and the Republican Party in Arkansas.
Before arriving Wednesday evening in Salt Lake City, Mr. Bush was stopping in Nashville to attend a $2,100-a-plate fundraiser for Bob Corker's Senate campaign.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
