US President George W. Bush, besieged at his ranch by relatives of US soldiers killed in Iraq, launched a five-day campaign on Saturday to defend the war to an increasingly skeptical US public.
In his weekly radio address from his Prairie Chapel property, Bush said that the war would help avert another attack like the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes and that the best way to honor fallen US troops was to defeat global terrorism.
"We must finish the task that our troops have given their lives for and honor their sacrifice by completing their mission," said Bush, whose approval ratings have slipped to some of the lowest levels of his presidency.
More than 1,800 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq and thousands more wounded in a conflict with a price tag in the tens of billions of dollars.
A recent poll found that a majority of Americans -- 57 percent -- believe that the war has made the US more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, despite Bush's frequent arguments that the conflict has made them safer.
US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan "know that if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets, and they know that the safety and security of every American is at stake in this war, and they know we will prevail," he said.
Bush's five-week stay at the ranch has been marked by a high-profile protest against the war in Iraq, led by Cindy Sheehan, who says she wants a face-to-face meeting with the president.
Sheehan, who met with Bush shortly after her son Casey was killed in Iraq last year, left the camp outside the ranch late last week to tend to her sick mother, but promised to return soon.
Bush was to travel to Utah on Monday to address a major veterans group, and head to Idaho Wednesday to speak with members of the Idaho National Guard, as well as praise forces who played a key role in the Afghanistan campaign.
The president said he would commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of fighting in the Pacific theater of World War II -- a conflict he frequently compares to the war on terrorism.
In his radio remarks, Bush noted that the four-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes was coming up and said he would be marking that event and thanking US soldiers he said were "on the front lines."
He did not mention efforts by Iraqi leaders to craft a constitution, or their failure to nail down a charter by last Monday's deadline.
"Like previous wars we have waged to protect our freedom, the war on terror requires great sacrifice from Americans," especially those serving in the armed forces, Bush said.
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