Bush Says U.S. Must Not Lose Nerve In Iraq

President Bush said Wednesday that rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan while battles rage is proving difficult, and "we're learning as we go."

The president looked back to the experience of World War II, the deadliest conflict in history, in again asking the country for patience as the United States fights two wars.

"We've assumed this obligation before," Bush told more than 1,000 graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy at a cold, drizzly football-stadium ceremony.

"After World War II we helped Germany and Japan build free societies and strong economies," Bush said. "These efforts took time and patience, and as a result Germany and Japan grew in freedom and prosperity. Germany and Japan, once mortal enemies, are now allies of the United States. People across the world have reaped the benefits."

Yet the president acknowledged one of the many differences between the global conflict six decades ago and the ones that began under his watch: today's wars are not over.

"In Germany and Japan, the work of rebuilding took place in relative quiet," Bush said. "Today we're helping emerging democracies rebuild under fire from terrorist networks and state sponsors of terror. This a difficult and unprecedented task, and we're learning as we go."

For example, he said, the U.S. learned the hard way that newly liberated people in Iraq could not make progress unless they felt a reasonable measure of security.

Bush says his own country must not lose its nerve. He said terrorist enemies, using the media and the never-ending news cycle, attack innocent people to weaken American resolve.

"We need to prevail not just in the battle of arms, but also in the battle of wills," Bush said. "And we need to recognize that the only way that America can lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves."

Bush's message was overshadowed by a blistering tell-all book by his former press secretary, Scott McClellan. The former voice of the White House, McClellan writes that Bush favored propaganda over honesty and candor in selling the war to the American public.

McClellan strikingly calls the Iraq war a "serious strategic blunder." His scathing account of Bush's leadership drew dominant news coverage and lit up many Internet blogs.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said that McClellan's account was puzzling and sad, and that Bush had more important matters than commenting on books by former staffers.

In his commencement address to the Air Force cadets, Bush trumpeted advances in warfare. He said U.S. forces can now target regimes without mass civilian casualties, which he said was a deterrent for enemies who might otherwise provoke the United States.

"By making war more precise, we can make war less likely," Bush said.

The speech was the main official business in a Western trip mostly designed for the president to raise money for Republicans. After the commencement, Bush was heading to Utah for two closed events to gather contributions for John McCain, the Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Some of the proceeds will help other GOP candidates, too.

Bush held a similar event on Tuesday in Arizona, raising an estimated $3 million. Overall, he has five fundraisers in three days, all of them closed to reporters.

The shadow cast by McClellan's book followed Bush and put his comments about the Iraq war in a new context. McClellan wrote that the Bush White House made "a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed" - in the run-up to war.

Perino, calling McClellan "disgruntled," said "this is not the Scott we knew." Former top White House aides blasted McClellan and said he had never raised such objections on the job.

At least 4,085 U.S. military members have died in the Iraq war. More than 430 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.