Bush Pledges ‘No Retreat’ From Iraq

President Bush vowed Tuesday that there would be no retreat from Iraq, even as the U.S. troop death toll since May 1 rose to 141, surpassing the number killed during the six weeks of major combat.

The stakes “could not be greater for the American people,” Bush said, adding, “Our military is confronting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other places so our people will not have to confront terrorist violence in New York or St. Louis or Los Angeles.

“There will be no retreat,” he told the American Legion’s 85th annual convention.

“Our only goal, our only option, is total victory in the war on terror.”

Bush’s comments came at a particularly challenging time for the administration.

With U.S. fatalities increasing and doubts growing about America’s ability to provide effective security in Iraq, influential members of Congress, including top Republicans such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, are calling for the Bush administration to send more troops.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed “road map” to peace between the Palestinians and Israel has been severely strained by escalating violence. The administration has based its foreign policy on the push for stability and peace in both parts of the Mideast.

On May 1, when the president declared an end to major combat in Iraq during a visit to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego, the American death toll during the invasion of Iraq stood at 138.

By Tuesday, 141 more had died, bringing the total to 279 troops killed since the war started March 20.

The latest deaths included a soldier whose support convoy was bombed in Hamariyah, 16 miles northwest of Baghdad. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack Tuesday.

Whoever staged the assault used what is becoming the insurgents’ weapon of choice: an improvised explosive device -- IED in military parlance -- a homemade bomb jury-rigged from mortar rounds, artillery shells, hand grenades or whatever is available. The remote detonators may be beepers, cellular telephones, even garage-door openers.

Also Tuesday, a soldier was killed when he was struck by an Iraqi motorist while changing a flat tire and another died of a nonhostile gunshot wound.

Some military officials were quick to downplay the significance of the latest deaths, but the growing number had a symbolic importance for others in Baghdad.

“During the war, people did expect to get shot at,” said Sgt. Danny Martin, a veteran of the so-called Wild West theater west of Baghdad, where opposition to the U.S.-led coalition has been fiercest.

“But May 1 was supposed to be when major combat operations were finished with,” he said. “People were looking forward to the downward slope and going home.

“Some people aren’t exactly happy about being here.”

Before May 1, U.S. troops faced a uniformed enemy fighting with conventional tactics.

The war has evolved into a steady rhythm of unpredictable attacks punctuated by the sabotage of pipelines and other infrastructure along with the occasional spectacular bombing, such as those at the United Nations and the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad.

The drumbeat of attacks against U.S. convoys and troops has never abated.

“It’s not conventional warfare, and some people aren’t trained for it, so it catches them unawares, off guard,” Martin said. “That’s where we find we’ve had a lot of casualties.”

“It’s a totally different war from what we trained for,” said Spc. Dustin Steward as his unit conducted a night patrol on foot through downtown Baghdad. “You don’t have a seen enemy. This war is something I won’t forget.”

Iraqi civilians encountered by troops may be friendly, indifferent or hostile. Even those grateful for the ouster of Saddam Hussein are often troubled by the occupation of their country.

Many soldiers speak of the difficulty of adjusting to the role of occupier.

“The mood of Iraqis can change from city block to city block,” said Pvt. Brad Beazer, also on foot patrol through the city center.

“On one block, kids are spitting at you and throwing rocks. And then on the next block they’re waving at you, telling you they love you.”

The setbacks in Iraq and the region -- as well as the continuing turmoil in Afghanistan -- have put pressure on Bush to rally support for the ongoing war on terrorism, with some recent polls showing an erosion in the numbers who back the undertaking.

Speaking to about 6,000 American Legionnaires at the St. Louis convention center, Bush portrayed the war on terrorism as the latest in a long line of just causes in which young American men and women have served.

Himself a member of the American Legion -- Post 77, in Houston -- the president spoke of Sept. 11, 2001.

“It was a day of suffering and sorrow. It was also a day of decision for our country,” a day when, he said, he decided to launch “this first war of the 21st century.”

Since then, Bush said, the terrorists “have seen the armies of liberation marching into Kabul and to Baghdad.”

The president also forcefully reiterated his strategy of preemption. “We will not wait for known enemies to strike us again. We will strike them and their camps or caves or wherever they hide before they hit more of our cities and kill more of our citizens,” he said, drawing cheers from the Legionnaires.

“We will do everything in our power to deny terrorists weapons of mass destruction before they can commit murder on an unimaginable scale,” Bush added.

“We are on the offensive against terror, and we will stay on the offensive against terror.”

In his remarks, the president also provided an update on anti-terrorism efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying that “nearly two-thirds of known Al Qaeda leaders, operational managers and key facilitators have either been captured or killed.”

Yet, he cautioned, followers of Osama bin Laden, who remains at large, continue to pose a “grave danger” to Americans and are “still finding recruits and still plotting attacks, and still intending to strike our country.”

As for Iraq, Bush did not address the still-fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction, whose existence he cited repeatedly in the run-up to war as the prime reason for seeking to oust Hussein.

Instead, he said Tuesday, “because of our military, catastrophic weapons will no longer be in the hands of a reckless, unstable dictator.”

Bush acknowledged the ongoing difficulties in Iraq, including widespread sabotage by Hussein loyalists. But those difficulties loom as a test of America’s resolve because “the remnants of Saddam’s regime are still dangerous, and terrorists are gathering in Iraq to undermine the advance of freedom.”

Bush concluded: “Our course is set. Our purpose is firm. No act of terrorists will weaken our resolve or alter their fate. Our only goal, our only option, is total victory in the war on terror. And this nation will press on to victory.”

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Chen reported from St. Louis and McDonnell and Kraul reported from Baghdad. Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this report from Washington.