(12-13) 04:00 PDT Washington -- President Bush hailed this week's parliamentary elections in Iraq as a momentous turning point in the war against terrorism and in developing Middle East democracy, but warned Monday that insurgent attacks will not end.
"The Iraqi people are stepping forward to claim their liberty, and they will have it,'' Bush told an audience from the local World Affairs Council in Philadelphia.
But the president said more casualties lie ahead. "As democracy takes hold in Iraq, the terrorists and Saddamists will continue to use violence,'' he said of the fighting that has occurred since the U.S.-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
And, for the first time in a formal appearance, the president put a number on the toll of Iraqis, saying "30,000 Iraqis, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We've lost about 2,140 of our troops in Iraq."
The White House views the Iraqi elections as an opportunity to shore up the American public's flagging support for the Iraq war and to curb calls for U.S. forces to withdraw. The administration released the 35-page National Strategy for Victory in Iraq two weeks ago when Bush made the first of the series of speeches, saying he wanted to spell out specifics about how the war is progressing.
Bush said Monday that history will prove his policy a sweeping success.
"Thanks to the courage of the Iraqi people, the year 2005 will be recorded as a turning point in the history of Iraq, the history of the Middle East, and the history of freedom," he said.
"When the new Iraqi government takes office next year, Iraqis will have the only constitutional democracy in the Arab world, and Americans will have a partner for peace and moderation in the Middle East.
"People across the broader Middle East are drawing and will continue to draw inspiration from Iraq's progress, and the terrorists' powerful myth is being destroyed," the president added in the third of four speeches planned before the Iraq elections end on Thursday.
But Democratic critics said again Monday that Bush has not been nearly specific enough about where he thinks the war in Iraq is headed.
"I regret that the American people have still not received a plan that identifies the remaining political, military and economic objectives that must be met in order to succeed,'' said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the decorated Vietnam veteran who has intensified the debate over the war by calling for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, said nothing that Bush said on Monday had changed his mind.
"The Iraqis are not against democracy, they are against our occupation," he said.
"It's not going to get better with us over there," Murtha told reporters at a Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce reception.
The president talked about the casualty count in response to an immediate question from the audience during a brief question-and-answer session after the speech.
The White House later said that Bush, by using the 30,000 number, was repeating the casualty count mentioned in the media and by independent groups. The Web site Iraqbodycount.org estimates the number of Iraqis killed at a low of 27,383 and a high of 30,892, based on online media and eyewitness accounts.
The figure includes Iraqi civilians and military and police personnel.
U.S. military deaths in Iraq have topped 2,140, according to the Pentagon.
The Iraq Index compiled by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, uses data from Iraq Body Count to estimate the number of Iraqi civilians killed through acts of war since the invasion from 16,300 to 28,700. It also says more than 3,700 Iraqi military and police officers have been killed since June 2003.
Bush also was asked why he continues to invoke the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as a justification for war with Iraq when no link between Hussein and the attacks has been established.
Bush called the decision to go to war "very difficult'' and added, "knowing what I know today, I'd make the decision again. Removing Saddam Hussein makes this world a better place and America a safer country.''
In his speech, Bush praised Iraqis, who are going to the polls this week for the third time this year, for sticking to deadlines and achieving milestones in developing democracy. One of Congress' leading war critics, House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco criticized Bush for inconsistency.
"The president's contention that setting political milestones in Iraq has led to results makes his refusal to set conditions for bringing American troops home all the more inexplicable. By clinging to his vague 'as Iraqi forces stand up, U.S. forces will stand down' formulation, President Bush guarantees a long and costly further American military presence in Iraq,'' she said in a statement.
She has endorsed Murtha's proposal, which he said would extricate all American forces from Iraq in six months.
E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com.
U.S. President Bush
United States President George W. Bush put a number on the death toll of Iraqi civilians, saying "30,000 Iraqis, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We've lost about 2,140 of our troops in Iraq" since the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003.

Mr Bush said more casualties lie ahead. "As democracy takes hold in Iraq, the terrorists and Saddamists will continue to use violence," he said. The president mentioned the casualty count in response to a question from the audience during a rare question-and-answer session after a speech on Monday. 

The White House later said the 30,000 figure was not an official government estimate. Aides said Bush was repeating the casualty count mentioned in the media and by independent groups. The Web site Iraqbodycount.org estimates, as a conservative estimate of those documented to have been killed, the number of Iraqi civilians killed at a low of 27,383 and a high of 30,892, based on online media and eyewitness accounts. 

However the Lancet Survey, which is the only serious scientific attempt to estimate the total number of Iraqi civilian deaths, estimates the death toll to be around 10,000. 

Another questioner challenged the administration's linkage of the Iraq war to the September 11, 2001  attack on New York. Bush said Saddam Hussein was a threat and was widely believed to have weapons of mass destruction — a belief that later proved false. 

"I made a tough decision. And knowing what I know today, I'd make the decision again," The President said in response. 

==See also== 
*Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003