'Islamic Empire' Warning Rescuing Bush's Ratings: Senators

WASHINGTON, October 7, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US President George W. Bush's warning of extremists' ideology to establish a "radical Islamic empire" from Spain to Indonesia is aimed to rebuild waning American support for his occupation of Iraq and bolster confidence of the American public in his leadership, US Senators have said.

"The president seems to be saying 'full speed ahead' for our current failed policy in Iraq, when it is abundantly clear that staying the course is the wrong course for America," Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy was quoted as saying by Reuters on Friday, October 7.

In his speech on Thursday to the National Endowment for Democracy, originally scheduled to mark the four-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks but postponed after Hurricane Katrina, Bush said that "Islamic militants" were working to establish a sweeping radical empire.

"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that expands from Spain to Indonesia," Bush said.

Failure

Senator Minority Leader Harry Reid said Bush's speech, which aimed at increasingly restive American public of the Iraq war, failed to outline a strategy to succeed.

"Instead, the president continued to falsely assert there is a link between the war in Iraq and the tragedy of September 11th, a link that did not and does not exist," stressed Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

A CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll found in September only 32 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of the Iraq war, which he launched in 2003 under claims of destroying weapons of mass destruction, a claim which never proved true.

Former US President Bill Clinton echoed a similar stance.

Clinton told Ladies Home Journal's November issue that Iraq "looks like a quagmire" and that while it is important for America to stay in Iraq, "the odds are not great of our prevailing there."

Chuck Hagel, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee and possible presidential candidate in 2008 said Sunday August 21, said in August the longer the United States stayed bogged down in Iraq, the more the conflict looked like another Vietnam War

The bloody Vietnam conflict is said to have claimed up to 58,000 US soldiers and injured more than 200,000.

The lowest unofficial Vietnamese casualty estimates are around 1.5 million killed. Other counts took the number to three million.

"Coherent Ideology"

In his speech, Bush used new and more-specific language in characterizing "Islamic militants" as part of a radical movement much like Soviet-style communism.

He claimed that those militants have a "clear and coherent ideology" and territorial ambitions, the remarks which experts believe only meant to give a momentum to his war on terror.

"This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision : the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom."

"In truth, they have endless ambitions of imperial domination, and they wish to make everyone powerless except themselves," said Bush.

Bush said that the United States had foiled 10 serious Al-Qaeda plots since 9/11 attacks, including one to attack targets on the West Coast using hijacked airplanes and another involving urban targets in Britain.

Shortly after Bush's speech, New York City officials announced the FBI had informed them of a specific threat against the subway system in "the coming days."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the threat came from overseas but had already been partially thwarted.

Experts have said that Bush owes a big thank you to Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network after he has been reelected for a second term in office in November of last year, playing the terror card and especially after the emergence of new Bin Laden's tape just one day before the crucial voting on November 3.

Democrats also accused Bush of playing on religion and the terror scare to stay in the White House.