Bush says troop levels will decline, but 'victory' is goal

President Bush Wednesday said the need for U.S. troops in Iraq will decline as the Iraqi military becomes more effective, but he declined to give a timetable and said U.S. forces will not be fully withdrawn until "victory" is achieved.

But Bush, who spoke at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., did not insist that U.S. enemies would have to be thoroughly eradicated from Iraq for the United States to declare victory.

"In Iraq, there will not be a signing ceremony on the deck of a battleship," Bush said, referring to the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri that ended World War II. "Victory will come when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens, and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot new attacks on our nation."

What the White House describes as an unclassified version of U.S. strategy in Iraq, released Wednesday, indicates that while force levels are expected to decrease next year, this cannot be guaranteed.

According to the president and the strategy document, titled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," the plan is to proceed along "three broad tracks" -- political, military and economic -- to win the war.

The enemy is comprised of "rejectionists," "Saddamists" loyal to the former regime, and terrorists affiliated with or inspired by al-Qaida. The strategy states that many of the rejectionists, largely Sunni Arabs who have not embraced the changes in Iraq, can be peeled off and convinced to support a democratic Iraq if the government protects minority rights. Few Saddamists can be won over, but the group can be marginalized and then defeated by Iraqi forces. The terrorists, who are the smallest but most lethal group, "must be defeated -- killed or captured -- through sustained counterterrorism operations," the document states.

Bush described progress he said is being made in training Iraqi troops. U.S. strategy is to leave Iraqi troops in charge of areas that have been secured from the enemy and to increasingly involve them with U.S. troops in offensive operations.

Bush indicated that questioning of the war may be disheartening to U.S. troops. "I know that for our men and women in uniform, this debate can be unsettling," Bush said. "When you're risking your life to accomplish a mission, the last thing you want to hear is that mission being questioned in our nation's capital." But he added that "we should not fear the debate in Washington," calling it "one of the strengths of our democracy."

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Bush "missed an opportunity" to lay out a viable strategy for Iraq. "After nearly 1,000 days of war in Iraq, our troops, their families, and the American people deserve more than just a Bush-Cheney public relations campaign," Reid said. "Simply staying the course is no longer an option, we must change the course."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., endorsed the call by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., to begin the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. "We should follow the lead of Congressman John Murtha, who has put forth a plan to make American safer, to make our military stronger and to make Iraq more stable," Pelosi said. "That is what the American people and our troops deserve."

But Pelosi said she would not call on the Democratic Caucus to take a position on Murtha's plan. "A vote on the war is an individual vote," she said.