WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday predicted "heavy fighting" this summer in what he acknowledged was an unpopular war in Iraq, but said it would be "catastrophic" for the United States to leave before the country is stable.
Before the House approved a measure to continue funding for the war, the president warned that insurgent forces in Iraq would deliberately step up attacks against US troops and Iraqi civilians in advance of September, when administration officials are scheduled to deliver progress reports on the war to Congress .
"It could be a bloody, it could be a very difficult August," the president said in a Rose Garden news conference. "We can expect more American and Iraqi casualties."
Despite growing public discontent with the war, Bush won a key victory on Capitol Hill, where the House voted 280 to 142 for a measure that would continue funding for the war without imposing any schedule for troop withdrawals. Many Democrats voted against it -- including the entire Massachusetts delegation -- but strong GOP support ensured passage of the bill, which would provide $120 billion for the war and some domestic programs unrelated to the conflict.
The Senate last night approved the measure 80 to 14.
When the spending bill came to the House floor yesterday, lawmakers on both sides of the intense, heated debate exhorted their colleagues to think of the troops. Antiwar forces pleaded to bring them home, while supporters of the Iraq war accused their colleagues of damaging the morale of American servicemen and women.
"Think about the message we have sent them: We have undermined their efforts, lowered their morale, and clearly sent the wrong message" by fighting with the White House over the bill for more than three months, said the House minority leader, John Boehner , Republican of Missouri.
In a tearful speech on the House floor, Boehner recalled the thousands killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and said the United States needed to win the war in Iraq. "If we don't stand up now, and we don't have the courage to defeat the enemy, we will regret it," he said.
Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who voted to authorize the Iraq invasion but has since become one of his party's most vocal war opponents, challenged his fellow House members to see the deteriorating situation in Iraq and move US troops out of harm's way.
"We're trying to change direction. We're trying to win this war," shouted Murtha, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, during the floor debate. "You can't win if you don't look at it objectively."
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Yet the same survey found that 69 percent think Congress should continue to pay for the war, and a majority wants that spending tied to benchmarks the Iraqi government must meet. Sixty-three percent said Washington should set a 2008 deadline for a withdrawal of troops.
On May 1, Bush vetoed a bill that would have included a scheduled withdrawal of combat troops and the House was unable to override the veto, the second of his presidency.
The deal Democratic leaders worked out with the White House does not include benchmarks for the Iraqi government or deadlines for troop withdrawal. It does allow the president to withhold reconstruction aid to Iraq if the nascent government fails to meet political and security mandates, but Bush has the option of waiving that punishment.
Because the United States could opt out of paying for the country's rebuilding, the bill "tells the Iraqis that our presence or commitment in Iraq is not open-ended," said Senator Susan Collins , a Maine Republican who helped craft the legislation.
The measure also included money for domestic projects unrelated to the war, including an increase in the federal minimum wage, which Bush had opposed. The wage rises to $5.85 an hour 60 days after the bill becomes law, goes up to $6.55 next year, and reaches $7.25 an hour in 2009.
Antiwar Democrats were clearly unhappy with the package. But with Bush threatening to continue vetoing any bills that include demands for a troop withdrawal -- and some Democrats worried that Republicans would accuse them of jeopardizing the troops if it took any longer to get legislation to the president's desk -- congressional leaders agreed to push a war spending bill without conditions.
"We faced the inevitability that we simply didn't have the votes to force the president to change policy" in Iraq, a dejected Representative David Obey , Democrat of Wisconsin, said on the House floor.
But he rejected GOP criticism that Democrats dragged out the debate -- knowing Bush would never approve a bill with troop withdrawals -- to score political points with antiwar constituents.
"It's the president's actions that have delayed getting anything to [troops] anywhere," Obey said.
Representative David Dreier, Republican of California, said the extended showdown over the war funding bill, including Bush's veto, emboldened Al Qaeda by suggesting Congress would consider "a surrender date."
"I understand that many Americans just want this war to be over. I want this war to be over, too," Dreier said. "The problem is that even if we were to withdraw from Iraq, the war would not magically be over," and sectarian-fueled bloodshed would continue in Iraq, he said.
Defending the war yesterday, Bush made repeated references to Al Qaeda and said the decision to oust executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was justified, despite the protracted war that has ensued.
"I assure you Al Qaeda has got plenty of patience and persistence. The question is, do we?" Bush asked.
The administration has acknowledged that Hussein was not involved in the 9/11 attacks, but the president repeatedly insisted that another assault from Al Qaeda is imminent if the United States does not prevail in Iraq.
"If we let up, we'll be attacked," Bush told reporters in the Rose Garden.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , Democrat of California, said Democrats would continue to force the issue of a reduction in troops during the summer, as well as a change in strategy. One such piece of legislation would deauthorize the war, while another would change the nature of the mission in Iraq, moving away from combat operations.
"This is not the end," Pelosi said. 
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