Bush: Dems Sending 'Mixed Signals'

President Bush escalated the bitter debate over the Iraq war by hurling back at Democratic critics the worries they once expressed that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat to the world.

"They spoke the truth then, and they're speaking politics now," Mr. Bush charged.

Mr. Bush went on the attack Monday after Democrats accused the president of manipulating and withholding some prewar intelligence and misleading Americans about the rationale for war.

Mr. Bush said that "some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past. They're playing politics with this issue, and they are sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy. That is irresponsible."

The president spoke Monday to cheering troops at this military base at a refueling stop for Air Force One on the first leg of an eight-day journey to Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. After a Latin American trip with meager results this month, the administration kept expectations low for Asia.

"I don't think you're going to see headline breakthroughs," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said on Air Force One. He dashed any prospect that Japan would lift its ban on American beef imports during Bush's visit and said a dispute with China over trade and currency would remain an issue after the president is back at the White House.

On Sunday, Hadley acknowledged "we were wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but he insisted in a CNN interview that the president did not manipulate intelligence or mislead the American people.

Iraq and a host of other problems, from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in the CIA leak investigation, have taken a heavy toll on the president. Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Mr. Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency, most Americans say Bush is not honest, and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terror. Heading for Asia, Mr. Bush hoped to improve his standing on the world stage.

"Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people," Mr. Bush said.

He quoted prewar remarks by three senior Democrats as evidence of that Democrats had shared the administration's fears that were given as the rationale for invading Iraq in 2003. Mr. Bush did not name them, but White House counselor Dan Bartlett filled in the blanks.

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons." Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.

"The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as (Saddam Hussein) is in power." Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.

"Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think that the president's approaching this in the right fashion." Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, now the Senate minority leader.

"The truth is that investigations of the intelligence on Iraq have concluded that only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world — and that person was Saddam Hussein," Mr. Bush charged.

In the Senate, 29 Democrats voted with 48 Republicans for the war authorization measure in late 2002, including 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and his running mate, John Edwards of North Carolina. Both have been harshly critical recently of Bush's conduct of the U.S.-led invasion and its aftermath.

On Capitol Hill, top Democrats stood their ground in claiming Mr. Bush misled Congress and the country. "The war in Iraq was and remains one of the great acts of misleading and deception in American history," Kerry told a news conference.

Mr. Bush is expected to get a warmer welcome in Asia than he did earlier this month in Argentina at the Summit of the Americas, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a protest against U.S. policies and Bush failed to gain support from the 34 nations attending for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.

Japan, the first stop on Mr. Bush's trip, and Mongolia, the last, are likely to give him the most enthusiastic response, while China and South Korea probably will be cooler but respectful.

A key stop on the Mr. Bush's trip will be China, a new economic giant struggling with the fallout from its own rapid expansion. CBS News correspondent Barry Peterson reports that by some counts there are hundreds in protests in China everyday, from farmers angry over land being taken for development, to workers angry as out-of-date, state-run factories are shut down. The anger, Peterson reports, comes from those left behind China's economic revolution — it has made a few million people rich, but left close to a billion people still poor

In South Korea, Mr. Bush also will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Conference summit in Busan, where 21 member states are expected to agree to support global free-trade talks. The summit also is expected to agree to put early warning and information-sharing systems in place in case of bird flu outbreaks.

"It is good for the president to show up in Asia and say, `We care about Asia,' because that is in doubt in the region," said Ed Lincoln, senior fellow in Asia and Economic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

At Mr. Bush's first stop, in Kyoto, Japan, the president will deliver what aides bill as the speech of the trip on the power of democracy, not only to better individual lives but contribute to the long-term prosperity of nations.