US President George W. Bush, facing new pressure to start bringing US troops home from Iraq, said on Tuesday he would not consider it until hearing a fresh assessment from his top commander there this fall.
"That's what the American people expect. They expect for military people to come back and tell us how the military operations are going," Bush said. "And that's the way I'm going to play it as commander in chief."
General David Petraeus is due to present a progress report to Congress in September on the effects of the recently completed troop buildup in Iraq. Frustration in Congress has led to calls for changes in strategy before then.
Bush, though, said he would not be swayed.
"We just started. We got all the troops there a couple of weeks ago," Bush told the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a coalition of northeast Ohio companies.
Bush's comments came as the White House scrambled to respond to growing opposition to the war.
"I wouldn't ask a mother or a dad -- I wouldn't put their son in harm's way if I didn't believe this was necessary for the security of the United States and the peace of the world," Bush said. "I strongly believe it, and I strongly believe we'll prevail."
The closest he came to signaling a troop withdrawal was to say: "I believe we can be in a different position in a while."
He described that as a troop level that would remain high enough to protect Iraq and keep training Iraqis.
One man asked the president if the war on terror will ever really end. The president didn't answer directly, saying instead that it was possible to marginalize those who train people to hate the US and seek terror.
"Liberty prevails every time if we stay with it," Bush said.
Meanwhile, Bush was also trying to pressure lawmakers into taking up what's left of his shrinking domestic agenda.
In stops through the Cleveland area, he hoped to draw attention to a strung-together list of topics -- energy alternatives, affordable health insurance and restrained spending. Bush's itinerary underlined the White House strategy: Get beyond the collapse of immigration reform by focusing on what's next -- and blame Congress for inaction.
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