Bush Says Withdrawal Would Fuel Risk of Al-Qaeda Attack On USA.

President Bush on May 23 pressed his argument that a premature departure of coalition forces would make al-Qaeda an even greater threat to the region and to the US. The coalition, Bush said during a commencement speech at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, was "at a pivotal moment in this battle". Of all the forces opposing it, he said, "the most destructive is al-Qaeda". Nor had its threat to US territory passed. He said: "Here in America, we are living in the eye of a storm". On May 24, the Democrats gave in to Bush by letting a $120 bn war funding motion pass in Congress.

Indirectly acknowledging the pressure for progress in Baghdad, Bush said: "As we carry out new strategy, the Iraqi government has a lot of work to do. The Iraqi people must see that their government is taking action to bring their country together".

The retreat by Democrats gave Bush only limited political relief, however. Even many Republicans say that, unless a report due in September/October from US military commanders and diplomats shows substantial success in Iraq, political pressure on the president will grow sharply.

In arguing his case, Bush referred to intelligence, declassified on May 22, which he said showed that in 2005, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had ordered Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, then his senior operative in Iraq, to create a terror unit to strike foreign targets, including the US. Bush said: "Bin Laden emphasised that America should be Zarqawi's top priority", and Zarqawi reportedly replied that he had "some good proposals". The group's intent then - and hope now - was that "if al-Qaeda can drive us out, they can establish Iraq as a new terror sanctuary". Zarqawi was killed by a US air strike near Ba'quba in June 2006.

Still, Bush said, the group "remains extremely dangerous", and was matching the US troop surge with one of its own, while planning further "deadly high-profile attacks". Bush said that, in 2003, intelligence officials had foiled a plot led by a Qaeda operative named Abu Bakr al-Azdi to hijack several airplanes and crash them into East Coast US targets. Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said separately that the information had been declassified because the intelligence community had followed through all leads it provided. Democrats and others have at times accused Bush of selectively declassifying intelligence for political ends.

The retreat on war funding constituted a wrenching reversal for leading Democrats. It was the first time since taking power in Congress after the Nov. 7, 2006, mid-term elections that the Democrats had publicly agreed to allow a vote on war financing without a timetable for troop withdrawal.

The legislative battle has raged since Feb. 5, when Bush requested the additional war financing. He had insisted that the money not be bound by time constraints. In backing down, the Democratic leaders accepted an outcome which had appeared increasingly likely for weeks, particularly as Democrats became concerned that their defiance could be portrayed as indifference to the troops. But the Democrats have pledged to renew their fight this summer by seeking to attach timetables to subsequent war funding measures.