Bush: US must not retreat in Iraq

Two days before a major anti-war demonstration, US President George Bush said today that withdrawing American forces from Iraq would make the world more dangerous and allow terrorists “to claim an historic victory over the US”.

Bush said terrorists have been emboldened over the years by the hesitant US response to a hostage crisis with Iran in the Carter administration, the bombing of US Marines barracks in Lebanon during the Reagan administration, the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre during the Clinton administration, and other events.