Bush rejects 'dangerous' Iraq timetables

FORT IRWIN: US President George W Bush on Wednesday vowed to reject any legislation creating a timetable for pulling US forces out of Iraq, calling that a "dangerous" strategy that helps extremists.   

Bush told US forces at this base that he knows that the US public is "weary" of the unpopular war that swept his Democratic foes to control of the US Congress, where they have sought to set a withdrawal deadline.   

Polls show the US public largely backs a pull-out, but Bush -- whose popularity has cratered in part because of anger at the war -- warned that "the enemy does not measure the conflict in Iraq in terms of timetables."   

"They plan to fight us and we've got to fight them alongside the Iraqis. A strategy that encourages this enemy to wait us out is dangerous," he said.   

The Democrats have approved emergency spending packages for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but attached restrictions on how it may be spent and tied it to plans to withdraw in 2008.   

"It's dangerous, it's dangerous for our troops, it's dangerous for our country's security and it's not going to become the law," he said.   

But Bush also acknowledged: "It's a tough war. The American people are weary of this war, they wonder whether or not we can succeed. They're horrified by the suicide bombings they see."