Bush defends Iraq war as "right decision"

Source: Xinhua | 03-20-2008 08:07

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush defended on Wednesday the Iraq war as a "right decision" despite a high cost as thousands of Americans staged anti-war demonstrations across the nation to mark the war's fifth anniversary.

U.S. President George W. Bush defended on Wednesday the Iraq war as a "right decision" at the pentagon  despite a high cost as thousands of Americans staged anti-war demonstrations across the nation to mark the war's fifth anniversary. (Xinhua Photo)

"Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win," Bush said during a speech at the Pentagon.

With six sentences began with "because we acted," Bush bragged about how the war "benefited" Iraqi people by ending Saddam's regime.

He also cited declining "Iraqi civilian death, sectarian killings and attacks on the U.S. troops," capture or killing of thousands of extremists and expansion of Iraqi security forces as the military progress achieved by the Operation Freedom in Iraq.

"To ensure that military progress in Iraq is quickly followed up with real improvements in daily life, we have doubled the number of provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq," he added.

Anti-war activists take part in a protest to mark five years of the war in Iraq during rush hour at Union Station in Washington March 18, 2008.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

However, Bush admitted that the Iraq war launched on March 20, 2003 became "longer, harder and more costly than we anticipated."

"There's still hard work to be done in Iraq," he said. "The gains we've made are fragile and reversible."

He reiterated his opposition to fast withdrawal of the current 155,000 U.S. troops from Iraq.