Bush rallies troops to avert revolt in Congress

President George Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney yesterday visited troops at US military bases in a public relations roadshow intended to stay a revolt in Congress against an "enduring relationship" with Iraq.

Hours after a televised address in which Mr Bush offered the American public updated reasons for a prolonged military commitment in Iraq, the president took to the road to try to build support for a plan that will pass on the responsibility of the war to the next US president.

Mr Bush inadvertently acknowledged it would be a hard sell. After having lunch with marines and their families in Quantico, Virginia, he said: "We, I, fully understand that if we were to be driven out of Iraq the Middle East would be in chaos."

The switch in pronouns was telling as the Democratic leaders in Congress turned on the White House. "The president failed to provide either a plan to successfully end the war or a convincing rationale to continue it," Jack Reed, a Democratic senator from Rhode Island, said in the official response to Mr Bush's address. The Guardian