http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29010-2003Oct28.html Bush Says U.S. 'Not Leaving' Iraq Due to Attacks
By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank
President Bush used a Rose Garden news conference today to compare the suicide bombers plaguing troops in Iraq to the terrorists who attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and said the United States is "not leaving" in the face of escalating casualties and chaos.
"The terrorists rely on the death of innocent people to create the conditions of fear that therefore will cause people to lose their will," he said. "That's their strategy. And it's a pretty clear strategy to me. . . . It's in our interest that we do our job for the free world."
"Iraq's a dangerous place," he said. "I can't put it any more bluntly than that. I know it's a dangerous place. And I also know our strategy to rout them out, which is to encourage better intelligence and get more Iraqis involved and have our strike teams ready to move, is the right strategy."
Continuing his complaint that news accounts have given short shrift to progress in Iraq, Bush pointed to the opening of schools and hospitals and said electricity capacity had returned to prewar levels. "Nearly 2 million barrels of oil a day are being produced for the Iraqi people," he said. "We've got to look at the whole picture." He added, "What the terrorists would like is for people to focus only on the conditions which create fear; that is, the death and the toll being taken."