Bush Appeals For Support On Iraq

Calls For Helping Troops During 3rd Independence Day Visit To W.Va.

(AP) 
"Terrorists can kill the innocent but they cannot stop the advance of freedom," he said.

The president called Iraq only the latest battlefield in the war on terror, and warned that "America will not tolerate regimes that harbor or support terrorists."

Mr. Bush has made an Independence Day visit to West Virginia a tradition of sorts. This was his third time. And it was a quick one -- 90 minutes from touchdown to takeoff from Morgantown, according to his schedule.

Morgantown, in north-central West Virginia, is the state's fastest growing community. It climbed by about 1,350 people to 28,160 between April 2000 and July 2004, according to new census figures.

Several thousand students, veterans, civic leaders and members of the military listened to the president at West Virginia University's downtown campus for the ticket-only event. Demonstrators were kept some distance away and could barely be heard.

Public works and parks crews worked over the weekend to spruce up the areas where Mr. Bush's motorcade was to pass.

Last year, Mr. Bush spoke before about 6,500 residents at the state Capitol Complex in Charleston on Independence Day. In 2002, a crowd of more than 8,000 gathered to hear him speak in Ripley.

Mr. Bush crisscrossed the state during his re-election campaign last year, making nine visits between April and September. He won West Virginia's five electoral votes by more than 13 percentage points.

Mr. Bush also campaigned at Morgantown High School during the 2000 race. His visit to West Virginia University is the first by a sitting president since 1911, when William Howard Taft attended the inauguration of Thomas E. Hodges as the school's eighth president.