WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The Bush administration is committed to "changing the nature" of the Middle East, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said Wednesday.
Card told an audience at the Hudson Institute, a conservative, pro-administration Washington think tank Wednesday that the United States needed to remain committed to long-term, ambitious policies to stabilize and transform the nature of the Middle East and South Asia.
"I encourage you to understand that we have a broader responsibility in thinking about the war in terror as just denying an attack today or winning a battle in Afghanistan or a challenge in Iraq. It's really [about] changing the nature of that part of the world," he said.
Card said the president remained confident in his policies against terrorism, but that the improvements that would come from them would take time to materialize and might not even be seen until after Bush left the White House.
"The results of defeating terror probably will not be realized during this president's tenure," he said. "This is a war that will have to be won every single day, but the ultimate victory will be many years away," he said.
