''As Election Day approaches, we can expect further violence from the terrorists,'' the president told Marines assembled here, promising Iraqi elections as planned on Jan. 30 with the support of U.S. forces that are scheduled to increase in coming weeks to about 150,000.
''A free Iraq will be a major victory in the war on terror,'' Bush said.
On the 63rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bush came here to thank the forces he deployed after another surprise assault against Americans - the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
''Today we find ourselves again at war,'' said Maj. Gen. Timothy Donovan, Camp Pendleton's commander, in introducing the president to several thousand Marines assembled on a wet football field on a chilly, overcast day.
''In places like Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, our fathers and our grandfathers struggled and sacrificed to defend freedom,'' Bush said. ''And today, in places like Fallujah and north Babil, this generation of Marines is fighting to extend freedom.''
This scenic base that occupies 17 miles of mountainous Pacific coast south of San Clemente and north of San Diego is home to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which has carried out much of the Marines' mission since the invasion of Iraq last year, including the deadly fight for Fallujah last month.
Camp Pendleton's forces in that war are scheduled to be relieved soon by the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
More than 50 Marines have died since the attack on Fallujah started Nov. 8. This year, the death toll has rung sometimes daily, and certainly weekly, at this post that employs 60,000 military and civilian workers.
''Camp Pendleton Marine Dies in Iraq,'' the base announcement reads each time. For example, Lance Cpl. Blake Magaoay, 20, of Pearl City, Hawaii, died Nov. 29 in Iraq. The rifleman, killed in action, had been awarded a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. Lance. Cpl. Jordan Winkler, 19, of Tulsa, Okla., died Nov. 26 in an accident at Camp Fallujah.
The Marine Corps says it cannot specify a total casualty count for the 1st MEF in Iraq, because different units attach to it from time to time. But more than 200 Marines from Camp Pendleton have died in Iraq, among the highest casualty rates in the war.
''Some of you have lost comrades and family members in the war on terror,'' Bush told the Marines standing silently before him. ''Words can only go so far in capturing the sense of grief. . . . But you can know this. They gave their lives for a cause that is just."
U.S. soldier to be tried in death of Iraqi
A U.S. tank company commander accused of killing a critically injured Iraqi driver for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will be court-martialed, an Army spokesman said Tuesday in Berlin.
Capt. Rogelio Maynulet, 29, of Chicago, will be tried on charges of assault with intent to commit murder and dereliction of duty, which carry a maximum combined sentence of 20 1/2 years, said Maj. Michael Indovina.
During Maynulet's Article 32 hearing - the equivalent of a civilian grand jury investigation - witnesses testified that the driver had been shot in the head when Maynulet saw him. A fellow officer said Maynulet told him he then shot the man out of compassion.
Maynulet was initially charged with murder, but 1st Armored Division commander Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey decided Monday to proceed with lesser charges at his court-martial.
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