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Iraq

Bush 'not giving up' on U.S. effort in Iraq

WASHINGTON - Despite growing anxiety about the war in Iraq, President Bush refused to set a timetable Friday for bringing home U.S. troops and declared: "I'm not giving up on the mission. We're doing the right thing."

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, with Bush at a White House news conference, expressed gratitude for the U.S. sacrifice in Iraq: the deaths of more than 1,700 military personnel.

"You have given us something more than money," he said. "You have given us a lot of your sons, your children, that were killed beside our own children in Iraq. ... This is more precious than any other kind of support we receive."

Taking questions Friday at the National Press Club, Jaafari dismissed any suggestion that the American people's growing impatience with casualties might curtail U.S. support and weaken Iraq's transition to a democracy.

Iraq's relentless violence and bloodshed have taken a heavy political toll on Bush and have raised alarms in Congress.

Public doubts about the war have increased to some of their highest levels since the March 2003 invasion. Just more than half of Americans now say the United States made a mistake going to war, and almost six in 10 say they don't approve of the way Bush has handled Iraq, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Hoping to build support, Bush will address the nation at 8 p.m. Tuesday. He will speak from Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division, on the first anniversary of the transfer of power from the U.S.-led coalition to Iraq's interim government.

Bush turned aside calls in Congress and elsewhere for setting a deadline to pull out U.S. troops.

"The way ahead is not going to be easy," Bush said. The killings and suicide bombings show that the insurgents have no regard for human life, he said.

"The enemy's goal is to drive us out of Iraq before the Iraqis have established a secure, democratic government," Bush said. "They will not succeed."

Insisting his strategy is working, Bush said, "I'm not giving up on the mission. We're doing the right thing, which is to set the foundation for peace and freedom. And I understand why the al-Qaida network, for example, is terrified about democracy, because democracy is the opposite of what they believe."

OIL-FOR-FOOD: The U.N. Security Council on Friday approved the transfer of $200-million in oil-for-food revenue to the Development Fund for Iraq and said $20-million more can be used to pay Iraq's past U.N. dues.

AMERICAN HOSTAGE: Philippine officials were rebuffed when they asked Iraqi abductors to free an American held along with a Filipino hostage who was released this week, Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis said Friday. Robert Tarongoy, who returned home Thursday, told officials his American co-worker, Roy Hallums, was alive. They were kidnapped Nov. 1 in Baghdad.

[Last modified June 25, 2005, 00:35:14]