President Bush tells the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City there will be no backing down in the war in Iraq. Bush says Osama bin Lauden is counting on the American people to force the government to withdraw troops from Iraq. But the President says that’s not going to happen..

Bush says the military surge in Iraq is working. He says allied forces are killing or capturing 15-hundred extremists every month…

Bush says the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is making progress, even if it is slower than some people want. He says it’s not up to politicians in Washington to decide if the al-Maliki government stays in place. He says that decision is up to Iraqi citizens voting in democratic elections.

The President told the convention that American soldiers have made sacrifices to create democracies in Europe, Japan, and South Korea. He says failure of the United States to help develop democracy in Iraq would throw the entire Middle East into a greater upheaval that would have great human and strategic costs.

 

Download excerpt of speech (18:53 mp3)