Bush Estimates Iraqi Death Toll in War at 30,000
WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/12/AR2005121200124.html?referrer=emailBy Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
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To make the point, Bush chose the home state of Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), whose call for pulling out of Iraq caused a sensation. He was accompanied by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).
But a few blocks away, Murtha offered a rebuttal to Bush's comparison to the American experience. "If they'd have kept the French here after 1776 . . . we'd have thrown them out," he said. "And that's what I say about what's happening in Iraq right now. The Iraqis are not against democracy. They're against our occupation."
Some of the five questions Bush later took from the audience also challenged his assertions. Faeze Woodville, 44, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Iran and now living in nearby Strafford, Pa., asked why he keeps linking the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to the Iraq war despite no evidence of a direct connection. The president said "9/11 changed my look on foreign policy" and he learned "that if we see a threat we've got to deal with it."
Woodville said in an interview afterward that she felt Bush ducked her question. "He must think we're morons," she said. "There is no link, and he knows it as well as I. And I and others in the audience are insulted that he thinks we don't read, don't think, don't have any opinions."