Bush: Surge produced 'first large-scale Arab uprising against Bin Laden'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Five years after launching the US invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush is making some of his most expansive claims of success in the fighting there. Bush said last year's troop buildup has turned Iraq around and produced "the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden." "The challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremists' defeat," he said. "We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast - the terrorists and extremists step in, fill the vacuum, establish safe havens and use them to spread chaos and carnage." Bush criticized those who "still call for retreat" in the face of what he called undeniable successes.