Bush sees Iraq war as a way to push democracy

WASHINGTON — Responding to calls from allies and friends, President Bush on Wednesday night embraced the goals that his father pursued when he attacked Saddam Hussein's forces more than a decade ago.

Bush asserted that removing Saddam and replacing the dictatorship with democratic institutions will transform a region known for authoritarianism and repression.

In saying he would exploit victory over Baghdad to develop a momentum toward peace in the Middle East, Bush put himself more firmly in the steps of his father, who told Congress after defeating Iraqi forces in Kuwait, "The time has come to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict."

It was also a day for damage control. Bush's principal ally, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, suffered a significant defection of Labor Party support over his alliance with Washington on Iraq policy. And Arab leaders gathering in Cairo for a summit meeting seemed to be reflecting the decidedly anti-war sentiments of the region.

Bush's remarks were doubtless intended to influence skeptics and provide a further justification for going to war with Iraq. But he did not engage the logic of his critics on the crucial questions of why he is unwilling to give U.N. arms inspectors more time to try to disarm Saddam through peaceful means.

Instead, he said he had "listened carefully" to world leaders and offered them this explanation: "The threat to peace does not come from those who seek to enforce the just demands of the civilized world; the threat to peace comes from those who flout those demands."

The White House on Wednesday seemed unwilling to even discuss a Canadian compromise proposal that would set a late March deadline for Iraqi compliance as a way to narrow the rift separating the United States and a long list of nations led by France, Germany and Russia.

As challenging as bridging that rift will be, building a peace between Arabs and Israelis would require even greater diplomatic efforts. And Bush, like his father, provided little in the way of details.

Bush said Palestinians would have to chose new leaders and build a "a reformed and peaceful state that abandons forever the use of terror."

At the same time, he said that after the threat of terror is removed and security improves, he expected the new Israeli government to "support the creation of a viable Palestinian state" and to "work as quickly as possible" toward final status negotiations with the Palestinians.