Leaving Iraq Too Soon Encourages Terrorists

"The United States will complete our work in Iraq . Leaving Iraq prematurely would only embolden the terrorists and increase the danger to America . We are determined to stay, to fight and to win," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"During the last few decades, the terrorists grew to believe that if they hit America hard – as in Lebanon and Somalia – America would retreat and back down. Five years ago, one of the terrorists said that an attack could make America run in less than 24 hours," Bush said.

"They have learned the wrong lesson," he added.

Following a fresh outbreak of violence this week in Iraq , Bush said that "some of the killers behind these attacks are loyalists of the Saddam regime” who seek to regain power and who resent what Bush termed “ Iraq ‘s new freedoms”.

"Others are foreigners who have traveled to Iraq to spread fear and chaos, and prevent the emergence of a successful democracy in the heart of the Middle East .

"The terrorists and the Baathists loyal to the old regime will fail because America and our allies have a strategy, and our strategy is working," Bush stressed.

He said that in little more than a month, U.S. soldiers had captured more than 100 former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime, seized weapons and confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars in terrorist funds.

The United States is also training "an ever-increasing number of Iraqis to defend their nation" and "implementing a specific plan to transfer sovereignty and authority to the Iraqi people," he said.

In the Iraqi capital, meanwhile, Bremer seemed to be giving a different, rather more assuring message.