Bush recasts himself as reluctant warrior
CEDAR RAPIDS (Iowa) - After launching two wars, President George W. Bush now says he wants to be a 'peace president'.
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In February: 'I am a war president' -- AFP[/size][/font]
With polls showing public support for the war in Iraq in decline, Mr Bush on Tuesday cast himself as a reluctant warrior and assured Americans they were 'safer' as he campaigned in the battleground states of Iowa and Missouri against Democrat John Kerry and his running mate, former trial lawyer John Edwards.
'The enemy declared war on us,' he told a re-election rally in Cedar Rapids. 'Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president...The next four years will be peaceful years.'
He used the words 'peace' or 'peaceful' a total of 20 times.
Mr Bush had called himself a 'war president' in leading the United States in a battle against terrorism brought about by the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on America.
'I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind,' he said in February.
Despite a surge in attacks in Iraq and US warnings that Al-Qaeda is plotting another major strike, Mr Bush insisted on Tuesday that US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had already made America safer, and that his re-election would let him finish the job.
Ahead of the release of a report detailing the breakdown in intelligence and security before the Sept 11 attacks, he said: 'We reorganised this government of ours to better protect the people.
'For a while, we were marching to war. Now we're marching to peace...America is a safer place. Four more years and America will be safer and the world will be more peaceful.'
Mr Bush and Mr Kerry are fighting hard in Iowa, which Mr Bush lost to Democrat Al Gore in 2000 by just 4,144 votes.
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This month: 'I want to be a peace president' -- AFP[/size][/font]
Recent polls give Mr Kerry a narrow lead, but a Kerry aide said the Iowa and Missouri races remain dead heats.
Mr Bush won Missouri by 3 percentage points in 2000, and acknowledged in St Charles that it would be a tough race this year.
At both rallies, he cast Mr Kerry and Mr Edwards as on the side of trial lawyers, who the President portrays as responsible for a flood of personal injury litigation that burdens the courts and is costly to small business. Mr Edwards made his fortune as a trial lawyer.
Democrats get campaign contributions from this group, while many businesses tend to favour the Republicans.
'I'm not a lawyer, you'll be happy to hear,' Mr Bush said to cheers. 'That's the other team. This is the pro-small business team.'
The two-state swing was part of a weeklong offensive by Mr Bush before the Democratic National Convention in Boston starting on Monday.p> Tuesday was also the first time that Mr Bush's daughters, Jenna and Barbara, appeared together on the campaign trail with their father.
They stayed in Missouri after their father returned to Washington. Campaign aides said they would attend private events for supporters in Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Tomorrow, the sisters are to participate in an online chat at the campaign's website,
www.georgewbush.com. -- Reuters, LosAngeles Times
