GEORGE BUSH sought to neutralise Cindy Sheehan’s summer peace protest yesterday by highlighting the case of another mother who has four sons serving in Iraq.

Speaking at a rally of 10,000 servicemen and their families in Idaho, the President quoted Tammy Pruett, from Idaho, who has also seen her husband and a fifth son serve in Iraq, as saying: “If something happened to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country. And I guess you couldn’t ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in.”

To loud cheers, Mr Bush declared: “America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts.”

Although he did not refer directly to Ms Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq last year, Mr Bush’s remarks were clearly intended as a riposte to the global attention that her peace vigil outside his ranch in Texas has attracted this month.

In an apparent reference to Ms Sheehan’s call for American troops to be brought home, he continued: “An immediate withdrawal of our troops in Iraq or the broader Middle East, as some have called for, would only embolden the terrorists and create a staging ground to launch more attacks against America and free nations. So long as I’m the President, we will stay, we will fight and we will win the War on Terror.”

An extra 1,500 US troops will be sent to Iraq to boost security for the October 15 constitutional referendum and the December elections. Two infantry battalions will join the 138,000 US troops already there.

Mr Bush’s choice of audience yesterday was designed to show that he maintains strong support among military families.

Opinion polls have indicated that support for the war is slipping and that his approval ratings have slumped in the past few weeks while he has been largely out of the public view.

The President’s fightback began this week with a speech to veterans in Salt Lake City and he continued yesterday with tributes to the American military and their families.

“If the terrorists were to win in Iraq, the free world would be more vulnerable to attacks on innocent civilians. And that is why for the sake of our children and our grand-children, the terrorists will be defeated,” he said.

Despite the violence and death in Iraq, he said that there were encouraging signs of progress, with more Iraqis being trained to take over military duties.

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