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U.S. 'Learning As We Go' In Iraq

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The Washington Post

Published: May 29, 2008

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - President Bush acknowledged "learning as we go" in building democracy in Iraq, as he used Wednesday's commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy to counsel patience and resolve in America's wars of the 21st century.

Bush sought to link the battle against Islamic extremists in Iraq and elsewhere to the 20th-century battles against fascism and communism. "In the 21st century," Bush said, "our nation is once again contending with an ideology that seeks to sow anger and hatred and despair - the ideology of Islamic extremism."

However, Bush found differences between now and then.

"One challenge is that in the past, in Germany and Japan, the work of rebuilding took place in relative quiet," Bush told the more than 1,000 graduates and their families.

"Today, we're helping emerging democracies rebuild under fire from terrorist networks and state sponsors of terror. This is a difficult and unprecedented task - and we're learning as we go."

He noted that in Iraq, "we learned from hard experience that newly liberated people cannot make political and economic progress unless they first have some measure of security."

As a result, he said, the United States has been forced to change its strategy in Iraq, sending additional troops, to help secure Baghdad and prevent sectarian violence. "Today we're seeing the fruits of the new strategy," Bush said. "Violence in Iraq is down to the lowest point since March of 2004. Civilian deaths are down. Sectarian killings are down."

Bush also noted that the defining success in war is trickier than it was in World War II.

"In the past, that was relatively easy to do," he said. "There were public surrenders, a signing ceremony on the deck of a battleship, victory parades in American cities. Today, when the war continues after the regime has fallen, the definition of success is more complicated."

Bush speaks every spring at one of the service academies, on occasion using the opportunity to set forth new strategies. His address on Wednesday, under a cold drizzle at the football stadium, offered familiar rhetoric about the "war on terror," though with a nod to some of the realities that have made the Iraq and Afghanistan wars much more protracted than he had once hoped and planned for.

In his speech, which was received warmly by the graduates and their families, Bush described "the first war of the 21st century" as a "battle of wills." He said: "We need to recognize that the only way America can lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves."

The president spoke of the opportunity to wage war "with greater precision and greater humanity" because of advanced weaponry. "We can better target strikes against regimes and individual terrorists," he said, however adding, "Sadly, there will be civilian casualties in war, but with these advances we can work toward this noble goal: defeating the enemies of freedom while sparing the lives of many more innocent people, which creates another opportunity, and that is, by making war more precise, we can make war less likely."

Bush said this capacity served as a "powerful deterrent" to hostile dictators. "When rulers know we can strike their regimes while sparing their populations, they realize they cannot hide behind the innocent, and that means they are less likely to start conflicts in the first place."

After delivering the commencement address, Bush was scheduled to fly to Utah for fundraisers for Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign and the Republican Party.

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