The US would wage war again, and alone if necessary, to ensure the long-term safety of the world, President George W. Bush said in an interview published yesterday.
Bush told Britain's leading tabloid newspaper, the Sun, on the eve of a state visit that he felt compelled to act following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
"I was at Ground Zero after the attacks," he said. "I remember this haze and the smells and the death and destruction. I'll always remember that.
"I made up my mind right then. We were at war and we were going to win the war. And I still feel that determination today."
The paper quoted Bush as saying US forces and their coalition allies had ended the tyranny of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, smashed the grip of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan and forced the UN to stop turning its back on terror.
The mass-selling Sun newspaper, best known for its semi-naked Page Three girls, is owned by tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, the most influential media empire in Britain.
Bush's choice to grant it an interview raised eyebrows among American journalists, who questioned its suitability for a president who has publicly embraced evangelical Protestantism.
"After coming to office with a vow to restore dignity to the White House, the president ... granted an exclusive interview to a British tabloid that features daily photographs of nude women," The Washington Post said in an article on its Web site.
Bush, unpopular in Britain following the US-led war on Iraq, arrives today for a visit that includes meetings with Queen Elizabeth and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest wartime ally.
In another interview with a British newspaper, influential Pentagon adviser Richard Perle echoed Bush's comments, saying the possibility of future conflicts could not be ruled out.
"Of course he [Bush] is going to stick with that principle, because it is fundamental to fighting and winning the war against terror," Perle, one of the architects of the US invasion of Iraq, told the Daily Telegraph.
"So, does this entail a risk we will find ourselves in conflict ... with other governments? Sure, it does."
Blair's ratings have plunged since the Iraq war and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction but Bush said the decision to go to war should not be judged on short-term results.
"I set big goals," he said. "I know what we're doing is going to have a positive effect on this world."
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant