President George W Bush said today the United States would stand its ground in Iraq despite a new videotape threatening attacks from al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri whose ideology he dismissed as "dark, dim, backwards."
At a joint news conference with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at Mr Bush's ranch, the president said al-Zawahri's videotape, which threatened attacks on the United States and Britain, made clear that Iraq is part of the war on terrorism.
"He's saying, you know, leave ... as I have told the American people, the people like al-Zawahri have a ideology that is dark, dim, backwards," Mr Bush said. "He's threatening. They have come up against a nation that will defend itself."
He added: "We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq."
US officials were working to authenticate the videotape as that of the al-Qaeda deputy to Osama bin Laden but they were assuming it was him.
The mounting US toll in Iraq and deadly attacks in the last few days have again raised questions on whether Washington has underestimated the strength of the Iraqi insurgency.
Twenty-eight American soldiers have been killed in the past four days, many of them US Marines from an Ohio-based Marine Reserve unit near Cleveland.
"The people of Brook Park (Ohio) and the family members of those who lost their life, I hope they can take comfort in the fact that millions of their fellow citizens pray for them. I hope they also take comfort in the understanding that the sacrifice was made in a noble cause," Mr Bush said.
A CBS News poll on Wednesday said 55 per cent of Americans did not approve of the way Mr Bush was handling the Iraq war, compared to 41 per cent who approved.
Forty-six per cent of Americans believed Mr Bush should decrease the number of US troops there, and 59 per cent said the war has not been worth the cost in lives and money.
Mr Bush said al-Zawahri and his followers want to drive the United States out of the broader Middle East and spread their own ideology and "impose their dark vision on the world."
"The Iraqis want to live in a free society. Al-Zawahiri doesn't want them to live in a free society. And that's the clash of ideologies: freedom versus tyranny," he said.
"We have had these kinds of clashes before and we have prevailed. We have prevailed because we're right. We have prevailed because we adhere to a hopeful philosophy. And we have prevailed because we would not falter," he said.
Mr Bush said US troops would remain in Iraq until Iraqis are sufficiently trained to defend themselves, as usual giving no timetable for this other than to say troops would return as soon as possible.