By Mark Silva,Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON – President Bush on Friday said the nation is in a “time of testing” of American resolve for the war in Iraq and assured the Iraqi prime minister that the United States will set no timetable for withdrawal of forces until Iraq can defend itself against the insurgency.

For his part, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari suggested that the rebuilding of a postwar Iraq should be modeled after the reconstruction of Europe after World War II and offered to call it “the Bush Plan.”

The president will make a direct appeal to the American public in an address to troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Tuesday evening, with a call “to complete a mission” the United States has started in Iraq. The White House is asking television news networks to make live air time available.

While he presses his argument that U.S. troops cannot specify a timetable for withdrawal until Iraq is assured of victory over the insurgents, Bush also is attempting to reconcile differing assessments of that insurgency within his own administration.

Vice President Dick Cheney has described the opposition as in “its last throes,” but Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces there, has told the Senate that there are more insurgents in Iraq than six months ago and that they are continuing to arrive from other countries.

“There’s no question that there’s an enemy that still wants to shake our will and get us to leave,” Bush said at a White House news conference with al-Jaafari.

“They know that … the carnage that they wreak will be on TV,” he said. “They know that it bothers people to see death. And it does. It bothers me. It bothers American citizens. It bothers Iraqis. They’re trying to shake our will. … And so, of course, we understand the nature of that enemy.”

“We also understand that there is reason to be optimistic about what’s taking place,” said Bush, pointing to the development of a new, democratic government in Iraq and training of Iraqi security forces that ultimately must defend the nation.

“Progress is being made, and the defeat of the enemy – and they will be defeated – will be accelerated by the progress on the ground,” the president said.

Critics of the administration insist that Iraq has become a training ground for the world’s terrorists and suggest no amount of explaining current policy will improve the situation there.

While Democratic leaders are not calling for a withdrawal of troops, they are proposing greater cooperation with other nations in providing security in Iraq and the sealing its borders.

All of this comes at a crucial juncture in the 27-month-old war in Iraq, with American public opinion turning against it for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion. Bush himself invoked a word harking back to the Vietnam War when a reporter asked him Friday whether declining public support for the war in Iraq and lack of progress on his domestic agenda suggest that he faces a second-term slump.

“A quagmire, perhaps,” Bush interjected with a smile, eliciting laughter at the brief news conference.

“Look, this is a time of testing, and it’s a critical time,” said Bush, maintaining that insurgents are intent on shaking the resolve of Americans. “Their whole attempt is to frighten the people of both our countries. … They figure if they can shake our will and affect public opinion, then politicians will give up on the mission. I’m not going to give up on the mission.”

Convincing a majority of Americans that the mission is worth continuing is the challenge Bush faces now, near Tuesday’s anniversary of the hand-off of civil authority in Iraq to the Iraqis.

He will take on that assignment at Fort Bragg, home of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, with a White House spokesman underscoring that the president will assume his most important role there: as commander in chief. As Bush has at other bases since combat started, he will meet privately with families of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan: “The president is the commander in chief. We are a nation at war.

“He will be very specific about the way forward in Iraq in his remarks. I think many of the American people really haven’t heard our strategy for success and the way forward in Iraq, and that’s why it’s important to talk to them, particularly at a critical moment like this, when the terrorists are trying to test our resolve.”

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Bush’s view of the way forward involves a “two-track strategy.” One track is to support the establishment of a stable democracy in Iraq, which started with elections in January and is supposed to lead to a referendum on a new constitution this fall and then elections for another, constitutional government. The other track is training and equipping the expanding Iraqi security forces to defend the nation against the insurgency.

As part of that strategy, Bush said the United States would not set a timeframe for departure of its forces.

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Bush made a public show of that pledge to al-Jaafari after a private meeting in the Oval Office. And al-Jaafari followed with a public show of appreciation for the more than 1,700 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq.

“You have given us something more than money – you have given us a lot of your sons, your children that were killed beside our own children in Iraq,” al-Jaafari said. “This is more precious than any other kind of support we receive.”

When an Iraqi reporter pressed al-Jaafari about rebuilding Iraq, the prime minister invoked the post-World War II Marshall Plan, and said: “We hope that Mr. Bush will try to redo a Marshall Plan, calling it the Bush Plan.”

Bush also plans to speak of his strategy and seek the public’s patience Saturday in his weekly national radio address, drafted as a preview of his appearance at Fort Bragg.

Yet Bush faces an increasingly skeptical nation, with the latest Gallup poll finding that 59 percent of Americans surveyed oppose the war.

“Following polls is like a dog chasing his tail,” Bush said at the news conference as he turned to the Iraqi leader. “I’m not sure how that translates. But my job is to set an agenda and to lead toward that agenda. … Iraq is a part of the agenda.”

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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): BUSH

AP-NY-06-24-05 1944EDT

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