They didn't disappoint.

The standing-room-only crowd punctuated the president's 40-minute address regularly with applause and nearly 20 standing ovations. Bush used his friendly audience as a backdrop for comments aimed to turn flagging public support for the war and beating back questions from skeptics, including some soldiers' relatives.

"A heavy burden falls on our military families. There are few things in life more difficult than seeing a loved one go off to war. They miss you and love you," the president said. "By standing behind you, the families are standing up for America."

The president's speech Wednesday at the Idaho Center, an indoor rodeo and concert arena, capped two days of mountain biking and fishing at the Tamarack Resort, about 90 miles north of Boise. He flew to Idaho after a speech Monday before the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Salt Lake City, where he sounded many of the same themes.

Some have criticized Bush for taking a lengthy, five-week vacation while American troops are still fighting in Iraq. Cindy Sheehan, the grief-stricken mother who has camped outside the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch for much of the month, has garnered media attention and sparked peace protests across the country.

Bush's rally with Idaho soldiers was staged in part to silence some of those critics. The president never mentioned Sheehan. Instead, he focused on Idaho families and soldiers who have never wavered in their support for the war.

He pointed to a teary Tammy Pruett in the center of the front row, the Pocatello mother of six boys, all soldiers. Four are in Iraq now and two have already served tours in the Middle East. Bush quoted Matt Salisbury, an Idaho soldier who provided security for the Iraqi elections and marvelled at the joy on an old man's face as he went to the polls last winter. And noting that he, too, was a National Guardsman, Bush reported that Idaho's contingent of 1,700 soldiers deployed in Iraq represents the nation's highest percentage of state guard troops called up.

"Patriotism and public service are alive and well in Idaho and across this country," Bush said in the first of many phrases that brought the crowd to its feet. He rejected the idea of withdrawal. "We will stay on the offense. So long as I'm president, we will stay and fight and win the war on terror."

At the end of his speech, the president acknowledged the fallen, noting 491 of more than 1,800 soldiers killed in Iraq were National Guard troops. "We mourn the loss of every life," he said. "We will honor their sacrifice by completing their mission."

While the president's supporters gave him the cheering soundtrack for his speech, a peace protest at Boise's Capitol Park on Tuesday night produced a different melody. Five women dressed in burlap sacks - the "Potatoes for Peace"- led a crowd of about 300 in a reprise of Vietnam War peace slogans: "One, two, three, four, we don't want your stinking war. Five, six, seven, eight, we will not collaborate." And a woman in a plastic Bush mask was "arrested" by a man in fatigues and told to await trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

On a more somber note, members of the Idaho Peace Coalition and Veterans for Peace staked more than 1,800 small crosses in the grass to represent U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. And the wives and mothers of servicemen and women still stationed there, the Gold Star Families for Peace, demanded answers from the president.

Melanie House, a 27-year-old widow from California, said she traveled to Idaho to fulfill a pledge to speak out after her husband, John, was killed in a January helicopter crash in Iraq. Bouncing her 8-month-old son, James, on her hip, House said her husband questioned his mission before his death and planned to say so when he returned. He never had the chance.

"This is not what I had in mind," House said. "My son will never know his father except through stories and pictures. President Bush took this all away from me."

But Nelda Reed from Caldwell marched her dog around the perimeter of the park carrying a sign with two photos pasted on it that read, "My sons are willing to live or die to protect your freedom."

Wednesday morning, about 50 protesters spread out along the route to the Idaho Center - a few with pro-Bush signs.

Most of the 9,000 invited to the president's speech brushed off rising public discontent with the president and the war in Iraq. In 2004, 68 percent of Idaho voters cast ballots for Bush.

"The protesters get more attention than they really warrant," said Kent Johnson, an aircraft maintenance supervisor at the National Guard's Gowen Field in Boise. "Most of us feel the same feelings the president expressed."

After his speech, the president worked the crowd for 15 minutes, signing autographs and shaking hands, before meeting one-on-one with more than 20 families of dead soldiers. He left Boise at 4 p.m. to return to his Texas ranch.