November 12, 2003	Wednesday	Ramazan 16, 1424

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WASHINGTON, Nov 11: President George Bush has vowed to complete the work the United States has undertaken in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We will (remain) steadfast and we’ll complete our work in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said the US president in a speech delivered on the Veterans Day.

“Our coalition is on the offensive and will stay on offensive in Iraq,” said President Bush while addressing a select gathering at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think-tank.

Mr Bush told an earlier gathering of veterans at Washington’s Arlington Memorial that “this nation will never forget” those killed in the war nor could it forget “their lives of service and all they did for us.”

In a related development, White House’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Monday Bush was not distancing himself from the casualties.

“The president is commander-in-chief, he cannot distance himself from American casualties,” Ms Rice told Seattle’s KING television, an NBC affiliate.

“These are the men and women in uniform whom he commands and he feels acutely every loss.”

“Young Americans have died in liberating Iraq and Afghanistan. ... The loss is terrible. It is borne especially by the families left behind. But in their hurt and in their loneliness, I want these families to know: Your loved ones served in a good and just cause,” Mr Bush said on Tuesday.

The US president said he does not expect his troops in Iraq to complete their job “within months” because “the work is not easy but it’s essential.”

The violence in Iraq, he said, was concentrated in a relatively small area of 200 square miles of what is called as Baathist triangle.

“The bands of Iraqi terrorists, Fidayeen Saddam and foreign Jihadis were testing our resolve— they will be defeated,” he declared.

He said the US-led coalition was holding 5,000 detainees while 1,000 “killers” have been captured or killed; and, “our warriors and liberators are fighting valiantly for a just cause.”