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One Year of Iraq Invasion

Bush defends but people, allies split over his role

AP, Washington
One year after ordering the first military strikes against Iraq, President Bush marks the anniversary with a fresh defense of his actions for' a voting public that remains split over his decision and international allies who are growing weary of continued postwar violence in that country.
Bush's speech yesterday in the East Room of the White House ends a weeklong administration effort to boost support for the war on terrorism at a time when cracks are forming in the US-led alliance that toppled Saddam Hussein from power.
The president was offering a favorable progress report and issuing a call for support in a "time of testing."
Aides said Bush's remarks would echo the warning he delivered Thursday at Fort Campbell, Ky., when he said the deadly train bombings in Madrid showed that
FROM PAGEL
terrorists kill innocent people "without conscience, without mercy."
'They cause suffering and grief and they rejoice in it," Bush said. "This terrorist enemy will never be appeased, because death is their banner and their cause."
That message, aides said, was also a caution against the kind of decision Spanish voters made Sunday in the wake of the bombings when they ousted the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, one of Bush's staunchest allies in the anti-terror war. and elected someone who opposes the Iraq war as their newleadcr.
Bush's speech was also given added impetus by rising criticism from Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and Bush's expected opponent in the November election.
Kerry marked the anniversary on Wednesday two days early, by accusing Bush of stubbornly holding to policies that he said have driven away potential allies at the cost of lives and money, "with no end insight"
"Today we know that the mission is not finished, hostilities have not ended, and our men and women in uniform fight on almost alone with the target squarely on their backs," Kerry said. "Every day they face dangeranddeath fromsuicidebomb-ers, roadside bombers, and now. ironically, from the very Iraqi police they are training."
In a gesture of unity despite Spain's threatened defection from Bush's "coalition of the willing," dozens of ambassadors from countries closely aligned with the United States were attending Bush's speech. Spain's new leader. Prime Ministerelect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has said he will withdraw 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq unless the United Nations takes control of peacekeeping.
Bush's effort was dealt another blow Thursday when Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, another key US ally, said his country was "misled" about whether
..' ’1 Saddam's regime had weapons of mass destruction and said he may withdraw his country's 2,400 troops , early from Iraq.
Bush was to highlight progress in Iraq, but less than eight months before tire presidential election he’s also still working to erase doubts about thewisdomofgoingtowar.
The National Annenberg Election Survey this month found Americans divided on whether they approve of 1 the way Bush is handling Iraq, with 47 percent saying "yes” and 49 parcent saying "no." The survey also found they were split on whether the Iraq: ; situation merited going to war.
As of Thursday, 568 US service members had died in Iraq since military operations began on March, 19, 2003, with most of those killed during combat. More than three-fourths of the dead, or ‘130, were killed after May 1, when Bush Dew to the deckof the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq.