UNITED NATIONS – Predicting an escalation of violence in Iraq, President Bush on Tuesday… UNITED NATIONS – Predicting an escalation of violence in Iraq, President Bush on Tuesday called for a broad new international drive to secure the country and foster democracy there and throughout the Middle East.

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly six weeks before voters decide on his bid for a second term, Bush again defended his decision to topple the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, whom he branded an “outlaw dictator.”

The president was received politely, but not enthusiastically, by the U.N. delegates, many from countries that steadfastly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and balked even at sending in forces to rebuild the country.

The president, though, offered no second thoughts, vowing to plow ahead with his first-strike strategy to root out terrorism.

“In this young century, our world needs a new definition of security,” Bush said, suggesting that national security no longer lies strictly within some “spheres of influence, or some balance of power,” but rather within the “advancing rights of mankind.”

Toward that end, he proposed a new Democracy Fund within the United Nations to build the institutions of democracy – legal systems with independent courts, a free press and political parties.

Earlier, in a separate address, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had warned that lawlessness was an imminent threat in many parts of the world, from Iraq to Sudan to Russia.

He cited relief workers, journalists and other noncombatants in Iraq who have been taken hostage and, in some cases, beheaded. And he singled out the U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners, calling it disgraceful.

“No cause, no grievance, however legitimate in itself, can begin to justify such acts,” Annan said, pointing to corners of the world where the said he law was being “shamelessly disregarded.”

“They (such acts) put all of us to shame,” he said. “Their prevalence reflects our collective failure to uphold the rule of law and instill respect for it in our fellow men and women.”

Bush also spoke of such lawlessness, noting the recent mass murder of schoolchildren in Russia and what he called genocide in Sudan. But he did not mention the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners.

“All civilized nations are in this together,” he said, “and all must fight the murderers.”

Bush addressed a full house at U.N. headquarters, but was not applauded until he finished, and then only politely. None of the delegates rose from their seats.

The cool reception was hardly a surprise, since Bush has long been at odds with many key allies over the war, which Annan just last week suggested was illegal.

The two men posed briefly for photographers before their speeches, but took no questions.

Still, Bush’s appearance at the United Nations put him back on the world stage, with sideline meetings with a handful of world leaders as he prepares for the first debate with Democrat John Kerry next week on foreign policy and national security issues.

In his speech, Bush never mentioned his challenger or even alluded to their increasingly bitter election-year quarrel over the war in Iraq and its troubled aftermath.

But later, in a brief session with reporters after a meeting with the new Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, Bush said the Massachusetts senator had taken “so many different positions on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all.”

In Jacksonville, Fla., where he was campaigning, Kerry ridiculed the president for “lecturing” the U.N. delegates on Tuesday.

“I believe the president missed an opportunity of enormous importance for our nation and for the world,” Kerry said, offering his own critique of the president’s speech. “He does not have the credibility to lead the world, and he did not and will not offer the leadership in order to do what we need to do to protect our troops, to be successful and win the war on terror in an effective way.”

“We need not to stay the course, but to change the course so we can be successful,” Kerry added, “and the urgency grows with every single day.”

Bush, though, vowed to stay the course in Iraq and to continue the hunt for terrorists wherever they might be.

“Freedom is finding its way in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we must continue to show our commitment to democracies in those nations,” he said. “The liberty that may have (been) won at a cost must be secured.”

Where Kerry said he saw chaos, Bush said he saw progress – and hope – in Iraq, and Afghanistan.

“These two nations will be a model for the broader Middle East, a region where millions have been denied basic human rights and simple justice,” he said. “For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability.”

Still, he warned again – as he has for months – of a “demanding” mission ahead, complicated by escalating violence, particularly in Iraq with the approach of expected elections in January.

“But these difficulties will not shake our conviction that the future of Afghanistan and Iraq is a future of liberty,” Bush vowed. “The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat. It is to prevail.”

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(c) 2004, The Dallas Morning News.

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