KANSAS CITY, MO. — With just three weeks to go before a crucial progress report on Iraq, the White House has launched a new communications effort to frame the debate by casting the war in historical terms.
The opening event was a speech Wednesday by President Bush to the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention, in which he argued that the history of American action in Asia -- particularly in Vietnam and Japan -- holds lessons for the current conflict.
Bush plans to follow up with an address Tuesday to the American Legion in Reno, in which he is expected to discuss the Iraq war in the context of the Middle East.
The message, the president and his advisors say, is: Just as the United States succeeded in bringing democracy and prosperity to Asia, it can do the same in Iraq.
"The advance of freedom in these lands should give us confidence that the hard work we are doing in the Middle East can have the same results we've seen in Asia and elsewhere, if we show the same perseverance and the same sense of purpose," the president said Wednesday.
The speech was essentially a repackaging of themes Bush long has articulated: The outcome of the Iraq war is crucial to the future security of the United States, and it would dishonor U.S. servicemen and women to withdraw -- as many Democrats and some Republicans want.
"As they take the initiative from the enemy, they have a question: Will their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just as they're gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq?" Bush said. "My answer is clear: We'll support our troops, we'll support our commanders, and we will give them everything they need to succeed."
The newest element in the president's communications strategy was a willingness to discuss Vietnam, a conflict that critics of the Iraq war often cite to suggest that the United States should cut its losses in Iraq and begin withdrawing.
Bush has been skittish in the past about analogies to the Vietnam War, largely because of the negative connotations it continues to hold for many Americans.
"One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields,' " Bush said.
Aides said the president felt it was necessary to revamp his message in the weeks before Army Gen. David H. Petraeus delivers a progress report that Congress mandated.
