Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar ? President Bush insisted anew on Thursday that war to rid Iraq of destructive weapons was justified, and he said the truth about Saddam Hussein’s ability to create and use deadly germs and bombs would come in time.

“We’re on the look. We’ll reveal the truth,” Bush said in a speech to 1,000 cheering troops as he wound up a seven-day tour of Europe and the Middle East. He flew back to Washington along a path that took him over Baghdad.

At 31,000 feet, Bush sat on a bench and gazed out a left-side window of Air Force One along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

He pointed out landmarks, including two airports, a predominantly Shiite area known as Saddam City and the site of the first night’s attack. Four F-18 fighter jets escorted in pairs at each wing, a protection routinely afforded presidential aircraft.

The fly-over was the closest Bush has come to the former battlefield. He visited on Thursday with soldiers based to the south in tiny Qatar, which served as the combat operations center for the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

The visit came amid growing international complaints over the U.S.-led coalition’s failure to locate tangible evidence of the mass-killing weapons Saddam was said to possess. Bush’s major ally in the war, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is accused of exaggerating the dangers posed by Iraq, the biggest controversy the popular prime minister has faced at home in six years in power.

On Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he told House members that he believed the intelligence about Saddam’s weapons would prove to be accurate. He spoke with reporters after a closed-door meeting with lawmakers.

Asked about remarks by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., questioning whether the weapons existed, Rumsfeld said, “We haven’t found Saddam Hussein and I don’t know anyone who is running around saying he didn’t exist.”

U.S. President George W. Bush reaches to rub the head of Staff Sgt. Michael Brown after delivering remarks at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar.