Republished from Democracy Now
President Bush warned Tuesday that pulling troops out of Iraq would help Osama Bin Laden establish a totalitarian Islamic empire stretching from Europe to North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In the speech Bush repeatedly quoted Bin Laden’s own words and compared him to Adolph Hitler.
President Bush: "Bin Laden and his terrorists allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before him. The question is will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say? America and our coalition partners have made our choice. We are taking the words of the enemy seriously. We are on the offensive we will not rest, we will not retreat and we will not withdrawal from the fight until this threat to civilization has been removed."
President Bush also vowed to stay the course in Iraq.
President Bush: "These evil men know that a fundamental threat to their aspirations is a democratic Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself. The know that given a choice, the Iraqi people will never choose to live in the totalitarian state the extremists hope to establish. And that is why we must not, and we will not, give the enemy victory in Iraq by deserting the Iraqi people."
On Tuesday the White House released an updated version of its "National Strategy for Combating Terrorism." Despite President Bush’s claim that Iraq is the central front on the war on terrorism, Iraq is only mentioned nine times in the 29-page document.
