Bush: Sectarian Killings Drop in Baghdad

President Bush delivers remarks about worldwide anti-terrorism efforts and the war in Iraq during a speech at East Grand Rapids High School in East Grand Rapids, Mich., Friday, April 20, 2007. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) (Carlos Osorio - AP)

Pushing back against Democrats, Bush said that not all the troops that he ordered in January in a military buildup have arrived. It's too early to assume defeat, he said.

"Ultimately, withdrawal would increase the probability that American troops would have to return to Iraq _ and confront an enemy that is even more dangerous," Bush said.

In past addresses on the war, Bush has worked to paint a rose-colored picture of progress in Iraq. This time, he showed the audience in Michigan maps and a photograph of the rubble left by a massive bombing earlier this week.

Bush acknowledged that since the new security operation began in Baghdad and Anbar Province, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents, some of the highest casualty levels of the war have been reported. That likely will continue as more troops move into more dangerous neighborhoods in Baghdad, he said.

"We must also expect the terrorists and insurgents to continue mounting terrible attacks," he said, and then showed the audience a photograph of what was left after four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad and killed 230 people at a bus stop. He said it had all the "hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack."

It was the deadliest day in the city since the mid-February start of the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to reduce violence in the capital and Anbar Province.

"Anbar province is still not safe," Bush said.

After the speech, Bush made an unscheduled stop at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, where the former president was buried in January. He laid a bouquet of white roses on a stone wall that marks Ford's grave and paused there for a few moments. The 38th president, who grew up in Grand Rapids, died Dec. 26 at age 93.

___

Associated Press writers James Prichard in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.