Aide calls speech a sign Bush will expand policy 3 Edition

• Published in: International herald tribune
• Main Author: Steven R. Weisman and David E. Sanger
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris New York Times Company 24.01.2005
• Edition: International edition
• Subjects: Bush, George W; WASHINGTON
• ISSN: 0294-8052

The administration official's comments were part of an effort to flesh out [George W. Bush]'s speech, which has stirred considerable reaction around the world and in Washington. Some conservatives, like Patrick Buchanan, a speechwriter for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, have suggested that the speech signaled a new interventionist approach by the United States. Buchanan said Bush had "asserted a right to intervene in the internal affairs of every nation on earth, and that is, quite simply, a recipe for endless war, and war is the death of republics." He said he saw the speech, as did many Republicans, as an effort by Bush to reframe the invasion of Iraq as an idealistic mission, rather than a mission justified by the administration as an effort to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. In the briefing with reporters, the senior administration official said that, while Bush's speech had been intended to be visionary, it did not suggest that there would be any military intervention. He noted that Bush had said that the United States would not use military means "primarily" to spread freedom.