Bush's Republican Party is fighting to hold on to its majority in both houses of Congress, with the war in Iraq and a series of Republican ethics scandals eroding voter support. The elections are November 7.
In his weekly radio address, Bush said his commanders on the ground 'are constantly adjusting their approach to stay ahead of the enemy, particularly in Baghdad.'
In an unusual move for a man who usually relaxes on weekends, Bush conferred with his top generals Saturday at the White House over Iraq, meeting with General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, and General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House.
General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, took part via video conference, White House officials said.
A three-month effort to bring violence in Baghdad under control has fallen short amidst calls from leading Republican lawmakers for a change of course in Iraq. The surge in attacks was 'disheartening,' US General William Caldwell, spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq, said this past week.
On Saturday alone, more than a dozen people were killed in an attack on a market in al-Mahmudiyah about 20 kilometres south of Baghdad, an Iraqi defence ministry source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
At least 80 US soldiers have died in Iraq since October 1.
In his radio message, Bush blamed the increasing violence on a new media-war by Islamist terrorists, carried out on the internet by groups like the Global Islamic Media Front who want to demoralize the US public.
'They carry video cameras and film their atrocities, and broadcast them on the internet,' Bush said. 'They e-mail images and video clips to Middle Eastern cable networks like al-Jazeera, and instruct their followers to send the same material to American journalists, authors, and opinion leaders.'
But it's not just Middle Eastern networks airing such footage. All week long, Cable News Network (CNN) has been running sensational images taken by purported terrorist camera operators and snipers as they stalk, then kill, US soldiers in Iraq.
Bush charged the terrorists' media campaign was 'trying to break our will, and we must not allow them to succeed.'
Recent calls by influential US Republican senator John Warner for the Bush administration to consider a 'change of course' in Iraq if the violence is not brought under control in 'two to three months' have added fuel to speculation the White House could change its course in Iraq.
Warner, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and other top Republicans are calling for a new strategy in Iraq. Senator Chuck Hagel said last week that Americans would not 'sustain a policy that puts American troops in the middle of a civil war,' speaking on Cable News Network (CNN).
The reports apparently prompted Bush to call Iraq's embattled Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and reassure him of his support this week.
Bush has consistently rejected setting a timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq, saying it would embolden 'the enemy' in a country he has declared the central front in the fight against terrorism.
'There is one thing we will not do: We will not pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete,' Bush said in his radio message.
Bush said the US has been engaged in 'difficult fights' before, in World War II and the Cold War, and vowed that 'this generation will do its duty as well.'
