President Bush yesterday called the US-led invasion of Iraq one of "the most successful military campaigns in history". Through a combination of creative strategies and advanced technology, "we are redefining war on our terms," he said, writes Conor O'Clery North America Editor in New York
"Overwhelmingly, yet carefully targeted, air strikes left entire enemy divisions without armour and without organisation," Mr Bush told aircraft workers in St Louis, Missouri.
"We've applied the new powers of technology - like the F-18s - to strike an enemy force with speed and incredible precision," and "precision-guided weapons fatally disrupted the regime's system of command and control."
Mr Bush was addressing 1,000 military personnel and employees at a Boeing factory that makes the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets used to fly missions against Iraq from US aircraft carriers.
More than ever before, "the precision of our technology is protecting the lives of our soldiers, and the lives of innocent civilians," Mr Bush said. "The overwhelming majority of the munitions dropped in the Iraqi campaign were precision-guided."
Mr Bush was loudly cheered when he declared that Saddam Hussein's regime had "passed into history" and that the US was "successful in making the world a more peaceful place".
"Today, organised military resistance has virtually ended, the major cities of Iraq have been liberated," and "the lives of the Iraqi people will be better than anything they have known for generations," he declared.
"A week ago Baghdad was filled with statues and giant pictures of the dictator. They're kind of hard to find today (laughter). The fall of that statue in Baghdad marked the end of a nightmare for the Iraqi people, and it marked the start of a new day of freedom."
Mr Bush called on the United Nations to lift decade-long economic sanctions against Baghdad, a move which the Pentagon reconstruction office in Baghdad needs before it can sign any new contracts on behalf of Iraq.
Sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990 have curtailed Iraq's oil revenues, though the UN has permitted oil sales to pay for food and medicine for Iraqi people.
While not declaring the war yet over, the US yesterday lowered the national terror alert level from "orange" to "yellow", the midpoint on a five-tier scale.
Earlier Mr Bush, who travelled on to Crawford, Texas, for an Easter break, signed a $79 billion spending bill to cover the costs of the war in Iraq. The US military has spent $20 billion on the war in Iraq and expects to spend $2 billion a month to maintain thousands of troops there through the remainder of the current financial year ending September 30th, according to Defence Department Comptroller Dov Zakheim.
Personnel costs have approached $7 billion, combat operations slightly over $10 billion and ammunition and equipment over $3 billion, he told reporters at the Pentagon.
Not everyone was happy with the President's visit. Mr Tom Buffenbarger, president of the aerospace workers union, said 238 machinists at the plant will be laid-off within 72 hours and "it is a travesty to ask these soon-to-be laid-off men and women to be props in a photo-op."
Democrats criticised Mr Bush for appearing with Boeing employees after refusing to support an extension of unemployment insurance for aviation industry workers. Boeing cut 30,000 jobs by the end of 2002 and will eliminate another 5,000 positions this year. "It is amazing that after fighting against aid for Boeing workers, the president is showing up at their doorstep to praise them," Senator Patty Murray said.