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Bush says Iraq war will require more sacrifice

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 14:53 CDT

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. military death toll in Iraq reached 2,000, President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that the war will require more time and sacrifice and rejected calls for a U.S. pullout.

"Each loss of life is heartbreaking, and the best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission and lay the foundation of peace by spreading freedom," Bush said, his voice breaking with emotion as he spoke at a luncheon of military wives at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington.

His remarks came shortly before the Pentagon announced that Staff Sgt. George Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas on Saturday of injuries sustained October 17 in Samarra, Iraq, when a bomb planted by insurgents detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

"This war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve," Bush said.. "The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced."

Although the Pentagon's official death count since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion remained at 1,993, U.S. military deaths announced in recent days pushed that total to 2,000. More than 15,000 U.S. troops also have been wounded in combat.

Sensitive to the 2,000 milestone amid waning public support for the war, the Pentagon said each soldier killed in Iraq died for a "noble and historic cause."

"Iraqis and Americans share a common bond and a common purpose. It is a cause worth fighting for," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

Falling support for the war has been one factor pushing down Bush's popularity in public opinion polls, and critics have called on the administration to bring troops home.

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, in a withering Senate floor speech, voiced impatience with Bush's stay-the-course message, and accused the Bush administration of ignoring the lessons of Vietnam and invading Iraq without evidence to support the use of force.

He said if U.S. officials are correct that a civil war in Iraq could be the result if the United States pulled out prematurely, "My question to them is, when and how then do we extract ourselves from this mess?"

About 2,800 Iraqi government security troops have died in action in the war, said a U.S. defense official who asked not to be named. In addition, about 200 British and other allied troops have died, the official said.

According to the Pentagon, about one in five U.S. military deaths in the war have resulted from "nonhostile" circumstances, ranging from medical problems to automobile accidents and suicides, with the rest killed in action.

BUSH POINTS TO IRAQI ELECTIONS, SEPT 11

Bush argued Iraq is making progress by approving a new constitution that clears the way for elections in December and that Iraqi troops are increasingly playing a larger role in fighting the insurgency.

"By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress, from tyranny to liberation to national elections to the ratification of a constitution in the space of 2-1/2 years," he said.

In the Senate, Leahy said once a new Iraqi government is in place, he believed Bush should consult with Congress on "a flexible plan that includes pulling our troops back from the densely populated areas where they are suffering the worst casualties and to bring them home."

Bush said those calling for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq were refuted by a simple question, whether America and other nations would be more or less safe if Iraqi insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were in control of Iraq.

As he has in recent speeches, Bush linked the Iraqi insurgency with those behind the September 11, 2001, attacks, since al Qaeda followers have spilled into Iraq to fight against the Americans.

He argued that Islamic radicals were intent on overturning Iraq's fledging democracy and using the country as a springboard to try to toss out moderate Arab governments, launch attacks on U.S. targets and create an empire from Spain to Indonesia.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Charles Aldinger, Caren Bohan, Tabassum Zakaria and Vicki Allen)

Source: REUTERS

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