WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush Tuesday said he will meet the June 30 deadline to transfer sovereignty to Iraq, but warned the Iraqi situation may worsen.
"A desperate enemy is also a dangerous enemy, and our work may become more difficult before it is finished. No one can predict all the hazards that lie ahead or the costs they will bring," Bush said during a one-hour news briefing in the East Room of the White House, set up in the wake of increased U.S. casualties in the war in Iraq.
Bush added the United States must follow its course. "Yet in this conflict, there is no safe alternative to resolute action. The consequences of failure in Iraq would be unthinkable," he added.
Said Bush: "Every friend of America in Iraq would be betrayed to prison and murder as a new tyranny arose. Every enemy of America in the world would celebrate, proclaiming our weakness and decadence and using that victory to recruit a new generation of killers.
"We will succeed in Iraq. ... Iraq will be a free, independent country and America and the Middle East will be safer because of it."
