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By Warren Vieth
Times Staff Writer

2:29 PM PDT, September 22, 2005

WASHINGTON — President Bush said today that mistakes made by three of his predecessors, including the Reagan administration's response to the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon, had emboldened global terrorists and helped set the stage for the 9/11 attacks.

Bush said he was determined not to repeat the pattern by pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq before terrorists are contained and Iraqi forces are able to provide their own security.

"To leave Iraq now would be to repeat the costly mistakes of the past that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001," Bush said in remarks at the Pentagon after a two-hour briefing by Defense Department officials on the status of the U.S. offensive in Iraq and the war on terrorism.

He cited as examples the U.S. response to the hostage crisis in Iran during the Carter administration, the Lebanon bombing under Reagan, and four crises that occurred during the Clinton administration: the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the Cole.

"The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves, and so they attacked us," said the president, as Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top military officials stood at his side.

Bush did not mention any events during the first Bush administration, such as his father's decision to end the first Gulf War without sending coalition troops on to Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.

The president's assessment came two days before tens of thousands of antiwar activists were expected to gather in the nation's capital to demand a rapid U.S. disengagement from Iraq. One person set to participant in Saturday's events is Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq last year and who disrupted Bush's August vacation by setting up a tent camp outside his Texas ranch.

Bush will not be in town when the antiwar demonstrators are scheduled to converge on the White House, where they hope to deliver a letter to the president. Bush was scheduled to fly to Texas and Colorado late Friday to review Hurricane Rita preparations and Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, the White House said, and would remain overnight in Colorado.

Bush, whose job approval ratings have fallen to new lows amid growing concern about the continuing violence in Iraq, said he understood there were "differences of opinion" about the U.S. military engagement there.

"Some Americans want us to withdraw our troops so that we can escape the violence," he said. "I recognize their good intentions, but their position is wrong."

Just as, in Bush's view, global terrorists interpreted the decisions of his predecessors as a signal of American ambivalence, they would view an immediate pullout from Iraq as a sign of weakness, he said.

"The terrorists are testing our will and resolve in Iraq," he said. "If we fail that test, the consequences for the safety and security of the American people would be enormous. Our withdrawal from Iraq would allow the terrorists to claim a historic victory over the Untied States.

"That's not going to happen on my watch," Bush said.