CONFLICT IN IRAQ / 'We're not leaving, so long as I'm president,' emphatic Bush says

CONFLICT IN IRAQ / 'We're not leaving, so long as I'm president,' emphatic Bush says

(08-22) 04:00 PDT Washington -- President Bush offered a pointed rebuttal Monday to those who question his policy in a war that has already killed 2,600 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis, asserting that pulling out of Iraq would be even more dangerous.

"We're not leaving, so long as I'm the president," he declared.

"I understand why people are discouraged about Iraq,'' Bush said Monday, adding that the war is "straining the psyche of our country.''

To make sure he made his point, Bush also said it would be "wrong,'' "a disaster,'' "a big mistake,'' a move that would "embolden extremists,'' "embolden Iran,'' "send a terrible signal,'' send "a wrong signal,'' "create a more dangerous world'' and threaten the United States.


The American psyche isn't the problem. The problem is this administration's disastrous Iraq policy,'' said Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who lost to Bush in the 2004 election.

"Patience is strained because almost five years later, Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, and gone is the promise of 'wanted dead or alive.' The administration's credibility is strained because the president's mantra that 'U.S. troops will stand down as Iraqis stand up' is another misleading myth, and 'stay the course' is a recipe for disaster when the course is broken,'' Kerry said.

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