Reply #: Bush Defends Tactics in Iraq

[TomClash]

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Monday he thinks about Iraq "every day because I understand we have kids in harm's way," yet he is determined to complete the mission there. He defended U.S. tactics in Iraq and at the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
At a joint news conference with European leaders, Bush said relations frayed by the war in Iraq were on the mend.

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"I want those families to know: One, we're not going to leave them - not going to allow their mission to go in vain. And two, we will complete the mission, and the world will be better off for it," Bush said.

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On Iraq, Bush said he would not bow to "cold-blooded killers that will kill Americans or kill innocent Iraqis in order to try to drive us out of Iraq."

"I think about Iraq every day. Every single day, because I understand we have kids in harm's way," the president said. "And I worry about their families; and I obviously, any time there's a death, I grieve."

But, Bush said, "We're making progress." He said he had spoken earlier in the day with Gen. John Abizaid, the American military commander in the Persian Gulf region.

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Bush spoke on a day when a suicide car bomber killed at least 15 traffic police and wounded about 100 more outside the unit's headquarters in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil.

Iraq's insurgency appeared unfazed by two massive U.S.-Iraqi military offensives against militant networks near the Syrian border and north of Baghdad.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB012I67AE.html