from: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0502bush02.html

Bush declares combat over, sets new goals

Reuters

President Bush is welcomed Thursday aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Elisabeth Bumiller
New York Times
May. 2, 2003 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - President Bush's made-for-television address Thursday night on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was a powerful, Reagan-esque finale to a six-week war.

But beneath the golden images of a president steaming home with his troops toward the California coast lay the cold political and military realities that drove Bush's advisers to create the moment.

The president declared an end to major combat operations, White House, Pentagon and State Department officials said, for three crucial reasons: to signify the shift of American soldiers from the role of conquerors to police, to open the way for aid from countries that refused to help militarily and, above all, to signal to voters that Bush is shifting his focus from Baghdad to concerns at home.

Even so, administration officials acknowledged that Bush's declaration of an all-but-over war carried huge risks. Not only could Iraq blow up again, they said, but major tasks are also unfinished. Weapons of mass destruction have not been found, Saddam Hussein's fate is a mystery, and U.S. troops remain under attack. Bush himself cautioned about the risks, saying, "We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We are bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes."

But when Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, happily told friends last week that Bush would soon declare the war over, it was a turning point that re-energized a White House domestic staff eager to step into the light after months in the West Wing shadows. Bush's speech, a cautious victory dance, was intended to use the military success to push forward Bush's domestic agenda.

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Administration officials said the first reason for the speech, to recognize the troops' shift to policing, was an effort to keep White House oratory in sync with the reality on the ground. In military parlance, Bush was making a statement of the "commander's intent" to 300,000 members of the air, land and naval forces in the Persian Gulf that the war is essentially over, an important moment of psychological closure.

"This is the military," a senior administration official said. "They don't just roll in one day. Everything is defined. They need somebody to declare, 'This thing is over.' "

The statement was directed as much at civilians at home and abroad, other administration officials said, to make clear that the United States is determined, eventually, to leave.

The second reason for Bush's speech, to clear the way for countries that did not contribute to combat operations, was also widely seen as an opening of the door for humanitarian and non-governmental organizations to move into Baghdad.

It was the third reason for the speech, changing the subject to domestic concerns and Bush's future, that clearly motivated the White House to create an extraordinary moment of presidential political theater on the deck of the Lincoln.

When the Navy SB-3 Viking carrying Bush made its tailhook landing on the aircraft carrier, the scene brought presidential imagery to a whole new level. Bush emerged from the cockpit in full olive flight suit and combat boots, his helmet tucked jauntily under his left arm. "It has a huge visual impact," said an admiring Michael Deaver, who created such images for Ronald Reagan, including the Gipper's famous Normandy speech. "This is a powerful, powerful visual, not only of Bush as commander in chief, but of his strength as a world leader." Harry Truman, Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson had their moments on battleships. But historians said they could not recall a president dressing in military gear since Teddy Roosevelt strapped on his old Rough Rider pistol before meeting with troops. In a sense, Bush was leaving the political comforts of his role as commander in chief and stepping into the possibly treacherous role as steward of the economy.

"Let's face it, Bush's strength is his foreign policy leadership," said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a lobbying group that has close ties to the White House. "By turning away from foreign policy issues, it makes him somewhat more vulnerable."

But it was imperative, Moore said, that Bush no longer make Iraq the center of his world.

Moore noted that in the past century no president had been re-elected when the stock market was down in his first term.

But Bush, basking in the light over the Pacific Ocean, sounded the names of the presidents of his pantheon, FDR, Truman and, of course, Reagan, who inspired the entire event.

The Washington Post contributed to this article.

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