The Hindu : International : Comments 'blown out of proportion'

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Wednesday, Sep 01, 2004

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International

Comments 'blown out of proportion'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, AUG. 31. The White House has said that the United States President, George W. Bush's comments on the war against terrorism had been blown out of proportion and there were some who were ``intent on trying to create a false perception.''

The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, was responding to a question aboard Air Force One en route to Nashville, Tennessee, on an interview broadcast yesterday in which Mr. Bush had said that he did not think the U.S. could win the war against terror but that it could make terrorism less acceptable around the world.

Mr. Bush's comments were seen as departing from the earlier position that the country could win the war on terror. But his aides quickly came to his rescue, saying that what he meant was in a conventional sense and that the comments only underscored the reality of taking decades to get rid of terrorism.

Asked if Mr. Bush's remarks on NBC had been blown out of proportion, Mr. McClellan said: ``He has done it many a time before. There are some out there trying to create a false perception.''

The White House has made it known that Mr. Bush in his address to the American Legion would be emphatic in that the U.S. was not only ``winning' the war on terror ``but we will win it.''

Mr. McClellan said the U.S. had liberated 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan and that there have been other changes as well.

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