NEW YORK - Democrats criticized President Bush's record on national security and military matters Monday, seizing on the president's comment that he doesn't think the fight against terrorism can be won.
"I don't think you can win it," Bush said on NBC's "Today," when asked, "can we win" the war on terror. "But I think you can create conditions so that the -- those who use terror as a tool are -- less acceptable in parts of the world."
Democrats responded quickly at a morning briefing a half-dozen blocks from the Republican National Convention.
"I decided a year ago that he cannot win the war on terror," Gen. Merrill McPeak, a John Kerry supporter, said of Bush.
What the President was trying to say is that the war on terror isn't one in which a decisive victory can ever be "won." Saying that we're going to win the war on terror is like saying we're going to win the war on crime. We can reduce crime. We can make it difficult for criminals to operate and provide them with reasons to stop their criminal ways, but we're never going to rid the country of criminals.
The same applies to terrorists. There are always going to be a certain number of extremists in this world who feel that the only way to political gain is through murder and terror. We can combat those people by taking away their places of refuge and denying the access to funds. We can also help spread democracy and tolerance in order to decrease the pool from which they can draw recruits. But we'll never be rid of them.