Washington, Oct 14: Striking back at critics, US President George W. Bush said today it is wrong to claim he lacks a coherent policy for post-war Iraq and that ``the person who is in charge is me''. After a week of bickering among his foreign policy team and rising doubts about his handling of Iraq, Bush said the United States is ``making very good progress about the establishment of a free Iraq''.
Refusing to put a timetable on the US military occupation, Bush said, ``The definition of when we get out is when there is a free and peaceful Iraq based upon a Constitution and elections, and obviously we'd like that to happen as quickly as possible."
``But we are mindful of rushing the process which would create the conditions for failure,'' he added. In the second phase of a public relations offensive, Bush reached beyond Washington to spread his message in interviews with regional television outlets. Last week, he pressed his case in a series of speeches along with Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. ``If we were to get out right now it would be a terrible mistake,'' Bush said in one such interview. ``A free and peaceful Iraq is in this nation's interest and, plus we've made a commitment to the overwhelming number of Iraqis who do not want Saddam Hussein and-or his thugs to return.'' Bureau Report