Washington ? President Bush on Wednesday adopted a defiant tone against outlaw elements in Iraq, virtually daring them to continue their deadly attacks on U.S. troops and vowing to stay and fight.

“There are some who feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “My answer is, ‘Bring ’em on.’

“We will deal with them harshly if they continue to try to bring harm to the Iraqi people.”

Even as he discussed the challenges faced by the U.S. military in Iraq, Bush said he was considering sending U.S. troops on a peacekeeping mission to the West African nation of Liberia. Bush’s aides said a decision could be announced as early as today.

Bush’s remarks on Iraq drew an immediate rebuke from Democrats, who said the president’s cowboy-style rhetoric was inviting additional attacks on U.S. forces.

“I am shaking my head in disbelief,” Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said. “When I served in the Army in Europe during World War II, I never heard any military commander — let alone the commander-in-chief — invite enemies to attack U.S. troops.”

Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), a Democratic candidate for president, also chastised Bush.

“I have a message for the president: Enough of the phony, macho rhetoric,” Gephardt said. “We need a serious attempt to develop a postwar plan for Iraq and not more shoot-from-the-hip one-liners.”

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer defended Bush’s comments.

“What the president was expressing there is his confidence in the men and women of the military to handle the military mission that they still remain in the middle of,” Fleischer said. “Major combat operations have ended, but, obviously, combat has not for those who are there.”

Since Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1, 67 Americans have died there, about a third of them in fighting.

Bush said Wednesday that U.S. forces would remain in Iraq as long as it takes to establish peace and set the nation on the path to democracy. The president on Tuesday acknowledged that such a mission would be “massive and long term.”

“There are some who feel like that if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely,” Bush said. “They don’t understand what they’re talking about, if that’s the case.”

Bush said the United States, with 156,000 troops in Iraq, has “the force necessary to deal with the security situation” but added that he would welcome additional military assistance from other countries.

Bush dismissed reporters’ questions on whether his administration misled the American public about Iraq’s possession of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons before the war. Months after taking control of Iraq, U.S. forces have been unable to find any concrete evidence that Saddam Hussein’s government had an active program involving weapons of mass destruction.

“Saddam Hussein had a weapons program,” Bush said. “He had them. And it’s just a matter of time.”

Though the United States has been unable to find Saddam, Bush said the dethroned leader no longer posed a threat to the United States, a measure of the mission’s success even if the weapons have not been found.

“The man was a threat to America,” Bush said. “He’s not a threat today.”