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Bush Launches PR Campaign for Iraq Policy

Posted on: Thursday, 9 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

President Bush, campaigning to counter rising criticism about Iraq, is praising postwar developments there as he thanks military reservists straining under long overseas deployments.

Bush's pep talk to the weekend warriors Thursday was to be the opening leg in a long day that had him shuttling north to New England to speak to troops and talk up the economy, then southwest to Kentucky to raise money for a Republican locked in a tight gubernatorial contest.

As of Wednesday, 166,046 National Guard members and reservists were on active duty, mostly deployed to hot spots in the war on terror like Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush was saluting members of the New Hampshire Air National Guard, Army National Guard and reservists Thursday morning in Portsmouth, N.H.

The reluctance of U.S. allies to send more troops to Iraq has caused greater pressure on members of the National Guard and reserve units. Pentagon officials say they may have to activate thousands more reserve troops in coming weeks to augment troops in Iraq.

Such call-ups uproot reservists from families and civilian jobs, and some military analysts fear it could depress recruitment in the future.

"If I'm just brutish with regard to the treatment of our people, then we won't have any people," Lt. Gen. James Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, said in a recent Associated Press interview. "They'll tell us ... `I'm out of here.'"

In the face of growing doubts about postwar Iraq, Bush is leading a new public-relations offensive to highlight positive developments.

Thursday, in the speech to troops, Bush was emphasizing signs of progress in Iraq, what Bush calls "the central front in the war on terrorism," and what the events mean for "the safety and security of the American people," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.

He warmed up Wednesday night with a speech at a fund-raiser in Washington sponsored by the Republican National Convention.

"Since the liberation of Iraq, our investigators have found evidence of a clandestine network of biological laboratories, the advance design work on prohibited long-range missiles, elaborate campaign to hide these illegal programs," Bush said.

Thursday, in a separate address to the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Bush was again stressing progress, this time economic, telling the business leaders the economy is moving in the right direction, Buchan said.

On the state-by-state map of the 2000 presidential election, New Hampshire was an island - the only Northeastern state to vote for Bush.

Bush is eager to keep it in his column. The trip is Bush's fourth to New Hampshire as president.

In a poll released Wednesday by the University of New Hampshire, Bush came out ahead in matchups against the top three Democratic candidates for the nation's first binding presidential primary next year, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and retired Gen. Wesley Clark.

Bush was raising money in Lexington, Ky., Thursday for Rep. Ernie Fletcher, who is tied in polls with Democrat Ben Chandler in the race for Kentucky's governor.

Bush's trip to Kentucky marked just the third time he has lent his money-drawing power to other candidates during this season of aggressive fund raising for his re-election. Bush has collected more than $84 million for his unopposed primary campaign next year, which cannot be spent for the general election.

Bush sent his wife and vice president on the road to raise money for his re-election on Thursday. Laura Bush was headlining a re-election fund-raiser in New York City. Dick Cheney was in Oklahoma City; then he was headed to South Bend, Ind. to help Republican Rep. Chris Chocola.

Bush raised more than $142 million last year for GOP campaigns and party groups; Cheney vacuumed up more than $40 million. Thirty-seven of the candidates Bush helped won and 16 lost.

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