WASHINGTON, March 18: On the eve of the third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush acknowledged on Thursday that the past three years have tested “our resolve.” Sunday marks the third anniversary of the US invasion. As the world observes the anniversary with widespread demonstrations, in Washington the Pentagon announced that it wants to pull increasing numbers of American troops out of the line of fire in Iraq.

From a low point in January 2004 of just under 110,000, the US troop total grew to about 142,000 four months later and has hovered in the range of 135,000 to 160,000 ever since. So far more than 2,300 American troops have died in the campaign, with more than 17,000 wounded.

“These past three years have tested our resolve. We’ve seen hard days and setbacks,” said Mr Bush in his weekly radio address to the nation which he used for reaffirming his resolve to continue the fight in Iraq.

“The fighting has been tough. The enemy has proved brutal and relentless. We have changed our approach in many areas to reflect the hard realities on the ground,” he said.

Meanwhile, anti-war protesters in the US have decided not to hold a large, centralized rally in Washington as they did in the previous years. Instead, they have decided to hold demonstrations across the country, hoping this strategy will turn declining public support for the war into a grass roots movement to end US involvement.

But one protest is being held outside Vice President Dick Cheney’s house in Washington, to show that “the American people also oppose the war,” says Answer, the group that organized previous protests in the US capital.

Mr Bush acknowledged that for some “the temptation to retreat and abandon our commitments is strong, but he warned that “there is no peace, there’s no honour, and there’s no security in retreat.”

Pledging that America will not abandon Iraq to the terrorists who want to “attack us again,” Mr Bush declared: “We will finish the mission.” He pledged that “when victory is achieved, our troops will return home with the honour they have earned.”

But Mr Bush’s promise to bring US troops backs after winning the war did not impress Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, who blamed the Bush administration’s “dangerous incompetence” for the difficulty in securing the peace in Iraq.