Bush Ends Asia Tour in Hawaii Visiting U.S. Troops

HONOLULU, Hawaii – President Bush, heading home from an eight-day journey to reassure Asia of America's commitment to the region, met with U.S. troops stationed in Hawaii.

Bush had breakfast with uniformed forces at Hickam Air Force Base on Oahu. Afterward, there was a briefing at the U.S. Pacific Command, whose territory spreads from the West Coast to the Indian Ocean.

White House briefing papers noted that Bush was meeting there in a room named after two men who played crucial roles in America's place in the Asia-Pacific region: Adm. Chester Nimitz, who commanded U.S. forces in the Pacific during World War II, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who headed the U.S. occupation of Japan afterward.

The president arrived in Hawaii on Monday night and had dinner with Adm. William Fallon, the command's chief. He was to be back at the White House by late Tuesday.

Escorting Bush to his meeting on the military base, at least three police motorcycles were hurt in an accident. Officers were seen lying on the grass at the base near their overturned motorcycles as the motorcade passed by, taking the president to an early morning breakfast with Hawaii-based troops.

The Honolulu Police Department said that ambulance and fire units had been sent to the base, where light rain had been falling on the partly cloudy morning, and some roads on the base were slick.

Two of the officers were transported by ambulance to Queens Medical Center in Honolulu, said Bryan Cheplick, a spokesman for the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.

A 30-year-old officer was in serious condition, and a 36-year-old officer was in stable condition, Cheplick said. No information was available on the condition or location of the third officer because he was treated by Hickam base emergency responders. The identities of the injured officers were not released.

Bush's trip to Vietnam inspired a fresh debate about whether today's increasingly difficult war in Iraq has dangerous parallels to the failed American war in Southeast Asia three decades ago. Now, the president is ending his Asian tour with an overnight stop in Hawaii, where the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor launched the United States' entry into World War II.

The Iraq situation was complicated Monday when Iranian leaders invited the presidents of Iraq and Syria to a weekend summit in Tehran to discuss the violence in Iraq. The move, viewed as an apparent attempt by Iran to counter U.S. influence in the region, was received with skepticism at the State Department in Washington.

"While there have been positive statements from the Iranian government about wishing to play a positive role in Iraq, those statements haven't been backed up by actions," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.

He offered a similar assessment of Syria, saying the problem "is not what they say; the problem is what they do. ... What we would like to see the Syrians do is take actions to, among other things, prevent foreign fighters from coming across the border into Iraq."

There has been strong speculation that the independent Baker-Hamilton advisory commission on Iraq, which is due to report to Bush soon, was considering recommendations that could include a broader role in the region by Syria and Iran.

The Iraqi government said diplomatic relations between the two countries — severed nearly a quarter-century ago — would be restored by Tuesday.

Bush returns to a capital where a postelection debate over Iraq is intensifying.

Democrats who won control of Congress in voting that took place a week before Bush began his trip to Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia are demanding major changes in the president's approach to the Iraq war.

Bush, trying to head off their proposals for a timeline for troop withdrawals, says he is awaiting the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., even as the Pentagon and other agencies conduct an internal review of possible strategy shifts.

Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also is at work on a thorough review of options for Iraq,

Now in its fourth year, the war is becoming increasingly unpopular with the American public as well, and the drubbing by Bush's Republican Party in the Nov. 7 elections was seen as an expression of that dissatisfaction.