Bush Revises Stance on War on Terrorism

NASHVILLE — President Bush forcefully and repeatedly declared Tuesday that the war on terrorism was winnable, a day after he touched off a partisan tempest by saying on national television, “I don’t think you can win it.”

In a speech to the national convention of the American Legion, Bush told cheering veterans: “We meet today at a time of war for our country, a war we did not start, yet one that we will win. If America shows weakness or uncertainty in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch.”

His comments came a day after Democrats sharply criticized the president for remarks he made to interviewer Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show that were aired Monday. “I don’t think you can win it,” Bush said of the fight against terrorism, “but I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world.”

The campaign of the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, pounced on Bush’s latest comments.

“What today showed is that George Bush might be able to read a speech saying we can win the war on terror. But as we saw yesterday, he’s clearly got real doubts about his ability to do so, and with good reason,” spokesman Phil Singer said.

Kerry addressed Bush’s remarks for the first time Tuesday night during a rally on the airport tarmac here; he is scheduled to address the American Legion today.

“All they’re talking about is the war on terror, which the president yesterday said he doesn’t think we can win,” Kerry told hundreds of whooping supporters. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you something: We can, we must and we will win the war on terror. And the way to win ... is fight a smarter, more effective war on terror.”

Bush administration and campaign officials sought Tuesday to explain the president’s comments to NBC. Vice President Dick Cheney, First Lady Laura Bush and campaign and administration staff said the president believed that the fight against terror would end in victory but that the long-term nature of the war meant that it would not end unequivocally, with a treaty-signing ceremony.

Bush, as a call-in guest on the Rush Limbaugh show Tuesday, said, “Really what I was saying to Lauer was, is that this is not the kind of war where you sit down and sign a peace treaty. It’s a totally different kind of war. But we will win it.

“I probably needed to be a little more articulate,” he said.

Bush told the American Legion convention, “Make no mistake about it, we are winning, and we will win. We will win by staying on the offensive. We will win by spreading liberty.”

Calling in to the Sean Hannity talk show on Fox Radio on Tuesday afternoon, Cheney said that “the president never intended to convey the notion that we can’t win. We clearly can, and we will.”

Mrs. Bush commented during three interviews on the morning news shows, and campaign advisor Karen Hughes spoke later in the day on television.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., speaking on CNN, said, “I don’t think we’re ever going to find a situation where every individual terrorist is eliminated. I do think that we will win the war on terror, and I think that we will prevail.”

The about-face pointed up Bush’s reliance on his credentials as a “wartime president” in his bid for a second term.

Singer, the Kerry campaign spokesman, sought to cast doubt on those credentials. “This president has gone from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible on the war on terror,” he said. “We need a leader who knows we can win the war on terror and has a plan to do it. America can do better than a go-it-alone foreign policy that has alienated key allies, leaving U.S. troops bearing the overwhelming burden in Iraq and U.S. taxpayers shouldering the bulk of the cost.”

Also Tuesday, Bush campaigned in Iowa and dropped by an evening picnic and softball game in central Pennsylvania between Pennsylvania Young Republicans and Pennsylvania College Republicans. He also addressed the Republican National Convention in New York, using videoconferencing equipment.

Today the president is scheduled to campaign in Ohio before traveling to New York for the GOP nominating convention.

In his remarks in Nashville, Bush talked about his support for veterans’ benefits as well as a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration. He was accompanied by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam War veteran and rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000.

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Times staff writer Matea Gold in Nantucket, Mass., and researcher Susannah Rosenblatt in New York contributed to this report.