Bush: Iraq war like Revolutionary War

By James Gerstenzang
Chicago Tribune
Published July 5, 2007

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- President Bush on Wednesday equated the war in Iraq with the U.S. war for independence. Like those revolutionaries who "dropped their pitchforks and picked up their muskets to fight for liberty," Bush said that American soldiers were also fighting "a new and unprecedented war" to protect U.S. freedom.

In a reprise of speeches he delivered during the 2006 congressional campaign, the president said that the threat that emerged Sept. 11, 2001, remains and that "a major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States on that fateful day."

Bush delivered his July 4 speech to the 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard, a unit that has sent some troops to Afghanistan and Iraq for second and third deployments. The president spent as much time shaking hands as he did delivering his address to an audience that included Guard family members and other residents in the northeastern corner of the state.

The president was adamant in his message that he would stand up to calls to end the war before he believes it has been won. When Congress returns next week, Democrats plan to renew their legislative push to bring home troops.

"Withdrawing our troops prematurely based on politics, not on the advice and recommendation of our military commanders, would not be in our national interest. It would hand the enemy a victory and put America's security at risk -- and that's something we're not going to do," he said.

West Virginia is a once-reliably Democratic state that was central to Bush's victories in the past two presidential elections. Wednesday marked the fourth Independence Day he has visited the state since taking office.

In an echo of his own warnings that the fight against terrorism will last years, Bush said that, at the start of the fight for independence, "America's victory was far from certain."

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