Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/president-bush-urges-americans-to-have-patience-in-iraq Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript At a press conference Wednesday, President Bush called for "patience and sacrifice" from the American people, while the U.S. troops remain in Iraq and continue to fight the broader war on terror. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: The day after his surprise Baghdad visit, President Bush went to the White House Rose Garden for an hour of questions from the press. Here are excerpts from that morning news conference. States: GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United It's in our interests that Iraq succeed; more importantly, it's in the interest of the Iraqi people.The challenges that remain are serious, and they will require more sacrifice and patience. And our efforts are well worth it. By helping this new government succeed, we'll be closer to completing our mission. And the mission is to develop a country that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself, and a country that is an ally in the war on terror.We'll seize this moment of opportunity to help the prime minister. We'll defeat our common enemies. We'll help build a lasting democracy in the heart of the Middle East, and that'll make Americans and Iraqis and the world more secure. I'll now take your questions. JOURNALIST: You said yesterday that a standard of no violence in Iraq is an impossible standard to meet. But do you believe that there needs to be a reduction in violence for U.S. troops to begin to drawdown? And, if so, how much? GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes, I'd say that if people say, "Well, there's got to be no violence in order for this to be a successful experience," then it's not going to happen. All that does is give the power of, you know, a handful of murderers to determine success.Obviously, we'd like violence to go down, and that's what, you know, the operation in Baghdad is intending to do, starting in the capital, is to reduce violence.And the reason why it's important for violence to be reduced, obviously, is, one, save lives; but, two, give confidence to the Iraqi people that their government will be able to sustain itself, and govern itself, and meet the needs of the people.Now, this is a tough struggle, and the reason why is because the rules of warfare, as you — you know, as we used to know them are out the window. I mean, there's no rules of warfare. It's just, if you can kill innocent life in order to shake somebody's will or create consternation in society, you just go ahead and do it.And so it's a tough task, no question about it, but I'm confident that this government will succeed in meeting that task.