Bush: No More Troops For Iraq

President Bush is again rejecting suggestions that he set a timetable for leaving Iraq or that he needs to send in more U.S. troops to battle the insurgency. Setting a timetable would be "a serious mistake" that could demoralize Iraqis and American troops and embolden the enemy, he said Tuesday in a primetime speech from a North Carolina Army base.

The president also said that sending more troops would undermine the U.S. strategy of training Iraqis to be able to as quickly as possible take over the security of their country.

"Sending more Americans would suggest that we intend to stay forever," he said.

U.S. forces in Iraq total just under about 140,000 and constitute the bulk of the coalition fighting force.

But critics of the president's hold-the-line stance, including some key Republicans, argued Wednesday that the administration lacks sufficient troops on the ground to mount a successful counterinsurgency.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., interviewed on CBS News' The Early Show, maintained that "one of the very big mistakes early on was that he didn't have enough troops on the ground, particularly after the initial victory, and that's still the case."

Sen. John Kerry, Mr. Bush's Democratic opponent in last year's presidential election, told NBC's "Today" show that the borders of Iraq "are porous" and said "we don't have enough troops" there.

Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," disputed the notion that sufficient troops are in place.

"I'm going to send him the phone numbers of the very generals and flag officers that I met on Memorial Day when I was in Iraq," the Delaware Democrat said. "There's not enough force on the ground now to mount a real counterinsurgency."

Democrats also criticized Mr. Bush for again raising the Sept. 11 attacks as a justification for the protracted fight in Iraq after the president proclaimed anew that he plans to keep U.S. forces there as long as necessary to ensure peace.

Urging patience on an American public showing doubts about his Iraq policy, Mr. Bush mentioned the deadly 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington five times during a 28-minute address Tuesday night at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Some Democrats quickly accused him of reviving a questionable link to the war in Iraq — a rationale that Mr. Bush originally used to help justify launching strikes against Baghdad in the spring of 2003.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accused the president of demonstrating a willingness "exploit the sacred ground of 9/11, knowing that there is no connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq." Mr. Bush first mentioned the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center at the beginning of his speech, delivered at an Army base that has 9,300 troops in Iraq. He acknowledged that Americans are disturbed by frequent deaths of U.S. troops at the hands of insurgents, but tried to persuade an increasingly skeptical public to stick with the mission.

"The war reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001," Mr. Bush told a national television audience and 750 soldiers and airmen in dress uniform who mostly listened quietly as they had been asked to do.

"Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war," he continued.

Mr. Bush said he understands the public concerns about a 27-month-old war that has killed more than 1,700 Americans and 12,000 Iraqi civilians and cost $200 billion. But he argued that the sacrifice "is worth it."

"We fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we will fight them there, we will fight them across the world and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won."

Polls show a majority of Americans now think the war was a mistake.

The latest CBS News/New York Times poll, found 51 percent said the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq, versus 45 percent who said military action was the right thing to do.

Mr. Bush's approval rating has also suffered, falling to 42 percent in the CBS/NYT poll, compared to 51 percent who disapprove of the job he's doing.

Tuesday's speech marked the first anniversary of the transfer of power from the U.S.-led coalition to Iraq's interim government. The president cited advances in the past year, including the January elections, infrastructure improvements and training of Iraqi security forces.

He aimed to convince skeptical Americans that his "clear path forward" to victory needs only time — not any changes — to be successful.

But Democrats criticized the president for not offering more specifics about how to achieve success in Iraq along with his frequent mention of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The president's numerous references to September 11 did not provide a way forward in Iraq," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said. "They only served to remind the American people that our most dangerous enemy, namely Osama bin Laden, is still on the loose and al Qaeda remains capable of doing this nation great harm nearly four years after it attacked America."

Mr. Bush urged Americans to remember the lessons of Sept. 11 and protect "the future of the Middle East" from men like bin Laden. He repeatedly referred to the insurgents in Iraq as terrorists and said they were killing innocent people to try to "shake our will in Iraq, just as they tried to shake our will on September the 11th, 2001."

Beyond their criticism, Some Democrats said they thought Mr. Bush strengthened his credibility. "I think he told the American people why it's important," said Biden.

"If you're going to get the kind of support the president needs at home in order to sustain this effort over the next several years, then a lot more candor is necessary," Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., told The Early Show. "The president began that process last evening."