Bush calls for sacrifices to show support for troops

? Standing before thousands of Marines, President Bush asked other Americans on Tuesday to make the war their own by helping battle-weary troops and their families.

“The time of war is a time of sacrifice, especially for our military families,” Bush said, wearing a tan military jacket with epaulets. “I urge every American to find some way to thank our military and to help out the military family down the street.”

In October 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to rout the terrorist-protecting Taliban government. The military took on the additional burden of the war in Iraq starting with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

In all that time, while traveling widely to visit military personnel and sit at the bedsides of the wounded, the president has asked little of the civilian public.

But with casualties increasing and the number of U.S. troops in Iraq slated to rise before next month’s planned elections there, Bush urged civilians to do more.

Speaking on the 63rd anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Bush’s call to sacrifice recalled President Roosevelt’s World War II-era requests for Americans to pitch in for the war effort. Citizens responded then by planting victory gardens, purchasing war bonds, contributing metals and transforming commercial factories into weapons-makers.

Bush, who flew across the country and back in one long day to a base that has seen one of the highest casualty rates in Iraq, suggested ways Americans now can support troops — and their left-behind families — by citing the example of several already doing so. Groups have been established to welcome home the wounded, collect thank-you letters, build homes adapted to disabled vets, and raise money for military families who must forsake home and jobs to stand beside a recovering soldier, he said.

“In this season of giving, let us stand with the men and women who stand up for America, our military,” Bush said.