PRESIDENT BUSH steeled Americans last night for more bloodshed amid “difficult and dangerous” times in Iraq, but argued passionately that the sacrifice was worth it.

Mr Bush conceded that the daily bombings were taking their toll on American morale as well as the lives of Iraqis and coalition troops. He tried to counter critics who have accused him of being out of touch with reality, a damaging charge that has driven down his popularity to politically dangerous lows.

“I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying and the suffering is real,” he said in a televised address. But Mr Bush said that despite the horrors and difficulties, retreat was not an option and that the only way for the US to go was forward.

He said that quitting Iraq now or soon would be to abandon the country, and perhaps the whole region, to terrorists. He would not allow America’s future to be determined “by car bombers and assassins”.

He said: “The terrorists can kill the innocent, but they cannot stop the advance of freedom. The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi, and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like bin Laden.”

He empathised with Americans who asked themselves if the sacrifice of lives — more than 1,700 US soldiers have been killed — was worth it. But he answered: “It is worth it, and it is vital to the future security of our country.”

Mounting casualties and a slump in the polls have worsened one of the biggest headaches of his presidency. A total of 80 coalition troops, 77 of them American, and 282 Iraqi personnel have died so far this month, along with 275 Iraqi civilians.

Casualties are also mounting in Afghanistan. Up to 20 US servicemen were feared dead when a helicopter crashed yesterday near the Pakistani border. The Taleban claimed to have shot it down.

Mr Bush was speaking hours after a poll showed a record 57 per cent of Americans believed that the White House had intentionally misled the country into war. Nearly three quarters said that Mr Bush and his war Cabinet had underestimated the challenges in Iraq, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll.

The number who believe that Mr Bush has a clear plan to defeat the insurgency has shrunk to little more than a third, and 59 per cent want US forces to withdraw partially or totally from Iraq. Mr Bush said that there would be “tough moments (ahead) that test America’s resolve”.

But he urged the public to rally behind the mission in Iraq. He said that the terrorists were creating “chaos for the cameras” to try to shake America’s will, just as they had tried to do on September 11, 2001.

He said: “The terrorists do not understand America. The American people do not falter under threat. And we will not allow our future to be determined by car bombers and assassins.”

The Administration has sown confusion in recent days about Iraq. Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, insisted that the insurgency was in its “last throes”. But Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, said that the insurgency could last for “five, six, eight, ten, twelve years”.

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