Wolfowitz Says U.S. Will Not Be Driven
from Iraq
Fri October 10,
2003 01:31 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz vowed on Thursday that
the United States would not be deterred by the almost daily
attacks in Iraq and declared U.S. forces were winning their
mission.
Wolfowitz, addressing an audience of several hundred people
at a function where a conservative think-tank honored him as a
"liberator" of Iraq, said Saddam Hussein holdouts and "foreign
terrorists" were trying desperately to undermine Iraq's
progress and throw the country into chaos.
"The terrorists in Iraq believe their attacks on innocent
people will weaken our resolve. They believe we will run from
a challenge. They are mistaken. Americans are not the running
kind," he said.
"Our troops will not be deterred by the desperate acts of a
dying regime or ideology ... We are winning," he added.
Wolfowitz, a major intellectual force behind President
Bush's decision to invade Iraq, received the "Keeper of the
Flame" award from the Center for Security Policy.
Bush has faced growing public suspicions he exaggerated the
threat posed by Iraqi unconventional weapons -- none of which
have been found -- to justify the war that ousted Saddam six
months ago.
He is also being accused of mismanaging the Iraqi
occupation as U.S. troops are dying almost daily in attacks.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded on Thursday
night when their patrol was ambushed in an impoverished
Shi'ite area of northeast Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
The ambush brought to 94 the number of U.S. soldiers killed
in action in Iraq since Bush declared major combat over on May
1.
The White House, confronting falling poll numbers, has
launched an aggressive public relations push aimed at
bolstering declining U.S. public support for the Iraq mission.
Wolfowitz repeated the Bush administration position that
Iraq was now the "central front" in the war on terrorism
launched after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"Make no mistake: This will go down in the annals of
military history as one of the great acts of liberation of a
country from a brutal tyrant," he said.
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