U.S. President George W. Bush, faced with growing calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, pleaded with Americans on Saturday for patience and cited progress in the past two months. "The success of the past couple of months has shown that conditions on the ground can change -- and they are changing," he said in his weekly radio address. "We cannot expect the new strategy we are carrying out to bring success overnight." But, he acknowledged that despite increasing the number of troops in Iraq to tamp down the unrelenting violence, there was growing frustration that the government had not made much progress on political goals. Still, Bush argued that young men were signing up for the Iraqi military, police were patrolling the streets and more operations with both U.S.-led troops and Iraqi forces were being conducted. Bush on Tuesday will try to build his case further for remaining in Iraq when he speaks to the American Legion annual convention in Reno, Nevada, the second of two such speeches. "I will focus on the Middle East and why the rise of a free and democratic Iraq is critical to the future of this vital region and to our Nation's security," Bush said.
