Bush bracing for a fight

SYDNEY, Australia -- President Bush wrapped up his participation at an Asia-Pacific summit Saturday and prepared for a renewed fight with the Democratic-run Congress over the future of the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

He plans a nationally televised address this coming week to "lay out a vision" for the American people about the U.S. role. In his Saturday radio address, Bush also set the stage for Monday's congressional testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, the chief U.S. commander in Iraq.

In the radio talk, recorded before he headed back to the United States, Bush recounted his Labor Day trip to Iraq's Anbar Province to visit U.S. troops and "see with my own eyes the remarkable changes they are making possible."

Sunni tribal leaders, working with Iraqi and U.S. forces, helped drive out al-Qaida militants, Bush said. "The level of violence is down. Local governments are meeting again. Young Sunnis are joining the police and army. And normal life is returning," the president said.

"Success in Anbar is critical to the democratic future of Iraq and to the war on terror," he said.

But the Senate's top Democrat contended in his party's weekly radio address that the president had misled the country into "an ill-planned war in Iraq" before finishing the job of destroying al-Qaida.

The U.S. military is not to blame for setbacks in the war, said Nevada Sen. Harry Reid. "These are President Bush's failures -- and it is long past time for him to change his flawed policies," he said.

Previewing his national address, Bush said he would "lay out a vision for future involvement in Iraq -- one that I believe the American people and their elected leaders of both parties can support. By coming together on the way forward, we will strengthen Iraq's democracy, deal a blow to our enemies, secure interests in the Middle East and make our nation safer."

Anticipating Petraeus' testimony to Congress, Reid said he expected the commander's assessment would "pass through the White House spin machine, where facts are often ignored or twisted, and intelligence is cherry-picked."

Bush planned a refueling stop in Hawaii after the long flight from Australia. He was scheduled to have dinner with military commanders and get a private briefing before resuming his flight back to Washington, arriving at dawn Sunday.

The president also was to get an update on his wife's surgery. Laura Bush was to have surgery Saturday to relieve pain from pinched nerves in her neck.

Bush left Sydney after the first formal session of this year's meeting of Pacific Rim leaders. He cut his visit short to return home because of the busy week on Iraq awaiting him. But the president had arrived in Australia earlier than originally scheduled and spent the past four days meeting with other leaders from the region.

They had lunch and joined for a traditional "group photo," in which all members wore Australian "bone-dry" coats. Bush watched fireworks over Sydney Harbor and had dinner with fellow heads of state before departing.

Thousands of demonstrators, held back by metal fences and concrete barriers, protested over the Iraq war, poverty and global warming.

Pacific defense issues was the focus of a meeting Bush held with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Later, the president met separately with Abe and with Indonesian President Bambang Yudhoyono, whom Bush thanked "very much for your strength in this struggle against extremists."

In his session with Abe, Bush said Osama bin Laden's just-released video speech was a reminder of "the dangerous world in which we live."