President pledges 'no retreat' in terror war at Legion meeting

ST. LOUIS -- On a day when the postwar U.S. death toll climbed past the number killed in major combat, President Bush pledged "no retreat" in the war on terrorism and defended his actions in Iraq amid calls for more international help.

"We're on the offensive against terror, and we will stay on the offensive against terror," Bush told about 6,000 people in the audience at the American Legion's 85th national conference Tuesday.

"We've adopted a new strategy for a new kind of war: We will not wait for known enemies to strike us again. We will strike them ... before they hit more of our cities and kill more of our citizens."

Bush faces tenuous situations on several fronts.

In Afghanistan, U.S.-led troops are meeting with an increasingly well-organized Taliban fighters. Rising violence between the Israelis and Palestinians has rocked the U.S.-brokered road map for peace. In Iraq, reconstruction work has been dealt a major setback by the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, and coalition forces still face persistent resistance from Saddam Hussein loyalists and terrorists.

A grim milestone was reached Tuesday when the U.S. death toll in postwar Iraq surpassed the number killed during major combat. When Bush declared aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1 that major combat operations had ended, the death toll was 138. Since then, 140 have died, including two on Tuesday.

Although no weapons of mass destruction have been found and some analysts point to loose links between Saddam and al-Qaida, Bush insisted that the United States was right to invade Iraq. He said U.S.-led forces removed a brutal dictatorship that built, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, sponsored terror and persecuted its people.

Bush cited progress in Iraq: More than 8,200 tons of ammunition seized since May 1. Forty-two of the 55 most-wanted Iraqi leaders captured or killed. "The more progress we make in Iraq, the more desperate the terrorists will become," he said.

Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, a Democratic hopeful for president, said Bush needs to ask the United Nations and NATO for help.

"If we're going to succeed in winning the peace in Iraq, we're going to have to have help," Gephardt said. "He has not yet gone to these international organizations and gotten the help we need. It is incomprehensible to me that he does not go and get the help we need."

The United States is considering a new United Nations resolution that would urge more nations to join coalition forces in Iraq, but so far, Secretary of State Colin Powell is finding only scant support it. Bush said he would continue to challenge other countries to join in the mission.

Before the speech, Bush attended a luncheon in St. Paul, Minn., that raked in $1.4 million for his re-election campaign, raising the total in his campaign coffers to more than $55 million.

Then, before he headed back to his Texas ranch, Bush helped to raise nearly $1 million for Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo. Inside the fund-raiser at a downtown St. Louis hotel, supporters dined on beef tenderloin and chocolate torte. Outside, dozens of people banged on drums and chanted: "Impeach Bush, Impeach Bush." One sign said: "Instead of War, Invest in People."