Coronado, Calif. ? Concluding a month-long vacation dominated by anti-war protests outside his Texas home and a rising death toll in Iraq, President Bush on Tuesday invoked the anniversary of the Japanese surrender in World War II and the post-war rebirth of that country as a historic parallel to present-day U.S. efforts in the Middle East.

Bush spoke before a dramatic backdrop of the USS Ronald Reagan, the 1,092-foot, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier docked at the North Island Naval Air Station, drawing repeated applause from an audience of Marines, Navy seamen and World War II veterans.

The picture-perfect setting, enthusiastic crowd and historic references contrasted sharply with the political realities facing Bush as he returns today to Washington, where some lawmakers have begun comparing Iraq to Vietnam, a war with far more negative connotations than the allied victory over the Japanese and the Nazis.

Bush pegged his remarks to the 60th anniversary Friday of the Japanese surrender to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, linking the bombing at Pearl Harbor that sparked the U.S. entrance into World War II to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that led to today’s battle against terrorism.

President Bush speaks at the V-J Commemoration Day ceremonies Tuesday at the Naval Station North Island in Coronado, Calif.

“Once again, war came to our shores with a surprise attack that killed thousands in cold blood,” Bush said. “Once again, we face determined enemies who follow a ruthless ideology that despises everything America stands for. Once again, America and our allies are waging a global campaign with forces deployed on virtually every continent. And once again, we will not rest until victory is America’s and our freedom is secure.”

Bush sought to connect Japan’s post-war transition to democracy to the effort by Iraqi leaders to draft and approve a new constitution – a process that has frustrated U.S. officials, who tried unsuccessfully to coax Sunni leaders to support the document and avoid what some critics now say is a recipe for civil war.

Bush also offered a new reason for the importance of military victory in Iraq, suggesting that if terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads an al-Qaida-affiliated group in Iraq, were to gain control of that country, “they’d seize oil fields to fund their ambitions.”