Bush: Dems Sending 'Mixed Signals'

President Escalates War Debate As He Heads To Asia

(CBS/AP) 
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hundreds in protests in China everyday, from farmers angry over land being taken for development, to workers angry as out-of-date, state-run factories are shut down.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 who feel the government is not listening to their needs (video).

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.