Bush vows 'no outcome but victory'

He casts strike as defensive move

WASHINGTON—In a hastily arranged Oval Office address, President Bush announced the beginning of military action against Iraq last night. "Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force," he said.

Just 2 hours and 15 minutes after his deadline for Saddam Hussein expired, Bush informed a national television audience of the first strike in what he promised would be a sustained campaign to safeguard US security.

"I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half-measures, and we will accept no outcome but victory," Bush said.

His appearance was something of a surprise; earlier in the day, White House advisers had knocked down rumors that he would appear on television at 9 p.m. They announced the sudden change in schedule only after the attack on Baghdad had begun.

The decision to act was made after an extraordinary four-hour meeting between Bush and senior advisers. He gave the order to strike between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. - at the very end of the meeting - and then went to dinner with first lady Laura Bush before returning to the Oval Office at 9:30 p.m. to review the speech. He spoke for less than 4 minutes.

In his remarks, Bush cast the strike as a defensive act - an effort to preempt Saddam Hussein from possibly using weapons of mass destruction to support terrorist strikes against the United States.

"We will meet that threat now with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of firefighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities," he said.

The president did not declare a full-fledged war, saying instead that the goal was to attack "selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war."

He warned, for the first time, that the strikes could lead to a "broad and sustained campaign," and could be "long and more difficult than some predict."

For most of yesterday, Bush put finishing touches on the war plans - the second time he had done so in less than two years - steeling himself for the moment that he would tell the nation he had ordered war on Iraq.

White House officials suggested last night that the full thrust of the war was yet to come; another speech could still follow.

Unlike at the start of military action in Afghanistan, Bush was under the international microscope immediately before hostilities in Iraq, with critics and supporters speculating about how soon the military would move.

The war council assembled early in the West Wing, and he spent the day reviewing military details with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Aides said Bush was playing a waiting game along with the rest of the country, simply "allowing the time that he has given to pass," one aide said.

Before announcing the first strike, Bush stayed out of sight inside the White House, limiting his other official activities to a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. He also made a phone call to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.

Bush also sent a formal notice of war to Congress, a step required by the resolution that Congress passed last fall and another sign that bombs would begin to fall on Iraq at any moment.

The notice declared that the "use of military force to remove the Iraqi regime is . . . not only consistent with, but is a vital part of, the international war on terrorism."

His closest aides - from Vice President Dick Cheney to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell - appeared somber on the eve of the attack. No longer did officials try to pretend that war was avoidable.

"As a result of Saddam Hussein's failure to disarm and his possession of weapons of mass destruction," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said, Bush "has come to the determination that the only way to enforce the United Nations resolution now is through the use of force."

Protesters outside the White House gates were pushed back beyond Lafayette Park as Secret Service agents widened the security ring around the building to stop demonstrators from climbing over a chain-link barrier nearby.

Bush, who had cleared his schedule through most of March to deal with the Iraq situation, announced an addition to his calendar: a dinner and meeting with President Paul Biya of Cameroon, who will visit the White House tonight.

Out of necessity, Bush also dealt with some domestic and other international matters. In his conversation with Blair, Bush discussed violence in the Middle East, which has remained intense even as it has taken a back seat to events in Iraq.

The meeting with Bloomberg and Ridge focused on domestic security.

When Bloomberg emerged from the meeting, however, the first thing he was asked was his reaction to the imminent war. "The president has listened and he has made his decision, and I know all New Yorkers are behind him and the troops overseas," Bloomberg said. "He's not going to be cowed or dissuaded. He's going to go out there and do what we all pray is right."