Bush: Stay the course, and Happy 4th

Bush vows to stay course in Iraq

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, trying to tap into Independence Day patriotism to revive domestic support for an unpopular war, vowed on Tuesday that U.S. troops would not leave Iraq until their mission was complete...

"Setting an artificial timetable would be a terrible mistake," Bush told more than 3,000 military personnel in a speech interrupted repeatedly by cheers at the home of the storied 82nd Airborne Division and U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

He reiterated his pledge to base any U.S. troop withdrawals on "the measured advice of our military commanders."

Bush pledged to the flag-waving crowd, "I'm not going to allow the sacrifice of 2,527 (U.S.) troops who've died in Iraq to be in vain by pulling out before the job is done...

"We will never back down. We will never give in and we will never accept anything less than complete victory," he said.

Meanwhile, his top military commander said September seemed like a reasonable time to begin withdrawing some US troops, Reuters reported. Complete victory must be just around the corner.