Excerpts of W's 5 yr. War anniversary speech (CNN)

(CNN) -- President Bush will mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war on Wednesday by calling the debate over the conflict "understandable" but insisting that a continued U.S. presence there is crucial.

"The answers are clear to me," Bush will say, according to excerpts of his speech to be delivered at the Pentagon on Wednesday, the day the war began in 2003.

"Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win."

"No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq."

"The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around; it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror," he will say, according to the excerpts.

"For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where al Qaeda rallied Arab masses to drive America out. Instead, Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al Qaeda out."

In the excerpts, Bush will say critics of the war -- such as Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- "can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much."

The March 9 opinion piece in The Washington Post was authored by Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, and Linda J. Bilmes, a former chief financial officer at the U.S. Commerce Department.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, cited the $3 trillion figure when criticizing the Bush administration's position on the war.

In his speech, Bush will call the projected cost "exaggerated."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/19/bush.iraq/index.html

-- "can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much."

...he actually thinks that he is getting over....


not that he hasn't gotten over the past 7 years, as it is....


5 years of illegal war, thousands and thousands dead and maimed and displaced, economies in ruin...

and he doesn't think this war cost too much...

IT'S ABOUT THE WAR!! IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WAR!!

unfortunately for him the cost is the very last thing the American people want to hear about.

Who are we at war with?
How will we know when we win?
Whom do we sign a treaty with?
What country will you flee to when you are brought to justoce?