President Bush and other Republican leaders on Tuesday criticized Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, for suggesting in a radio interview that the United States could not win the war in Iraq.
“The idea that we’re going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong,” Dean told San Antonio radio station WOAI on Monday. He drew a parallel to Vietnam.
Asked about Dean’s comment, Bush replied, “Oh, there’s pessimists, you know, and politicians who try to score points. Our troops need to know that the American people stand with them, and we have a strategy for victory.”
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) also weighed in, saying that Dean had “made it clear the Democratic Party sides with those who wish to surrender.”
Karen Finney, the Democratic National Committee’s communications director, said Dean’s comments had been taken out of context. She pointed to Dean’s comments in which he said that it was Bush’s “permanent commitment to a failed strategy” that was doomed to fail.
Also on Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated the administration’s determination to resist what it felt would be a hasty withdrawal of troops. In an address at Ft. Drum, N.Y., to several thousand troops newly returned from the war, he called premature withdrawal “unwise in the extreme.”
