Tobyhanna, Pa. ? President Bush, in the most forceful defense yet of his Iraq war policy, accused critics Friday of trying to rewrite history and charged that they’re undercutting America’s forces on the front lines.

“The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges,” the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.

“While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began,” the president said.

Bush’s combative defense of his policy came at a time of growing doubts and criticism about a war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,050 members of the U.S. military. As casualties have climbed, Bush’s popularity has dropped. His approval rating now is at 37 percent in the latest AP-Ipsos poll, an all-time low point of his presidency.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., quickly returned Bush’s criticism.

“Its deeply regrettable that the president is using Veterans Day as a campaign-like attempt to rebuild his own credibility by tearing down those who seek the truth about the clear manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war,” Kennedy said in a statement.

“Instead of providing open and honest answers about how we will achieve success in Iraq and allow our troops to begin to come home,” Kennedy said, “the president reverted to the same manipulation of facts to justify a war we never should have fought.”

The president spoke at the Tobyhanna Army Depot on a stage decorated with posters that said “Strategy for Victory.”

His appearance came as his primary justification for the 2003 invasion – that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction – has come under fresh attack on Capitol Hill. Democrats have seized on the indictment of a now-resigned senior White House aide in the CIA leak case to shine the spotlight on how the president and other officials used intelligence about Iraq in the weeks and months leading up to the war.

Inquiry pending

A congressional inquiry into the administration’s handling of prewar intelligence is pending.

Bush said that foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

“Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and mislead the American people about why we went to war,” Bush said.

He said those critics have made those allegations although they know that a Senate investigation “found no evidence” of political pressure to change the intelligence community’s assessments related to Saddam’s weapons program.

Bush also said they know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing Saddam’s development and possession of weapons of mass destruction.

“More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power,” he said.

Bush did not single out any critics by name but said many of them had supported Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., his rival for the White House in last year’s presidential elections.

The president said the criticism has taken a toll on U.S. forces.

“These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will,” Bush said.

“As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them,” the president said. “Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that, whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united and we will settle for nothing less than victory.”

“We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory,” Bush declared.

Bush said the United States and its allies are determined to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of extremists and prevent them from gaining control of any country.

Syria’s government

Bush singled out Syria for particular criticism, saying its government had taken “two disturbing steps” in recent days. He cited the arrest of Syria pro-democracy activist Kamal Labwani and a “strident speech” by President Bashar Assad. In that speech, Assad said his government would cooperate with a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of a Lebanese leader, but warned he would no longer “play their game” if Syria “is going to be harmed.”

Bush said Syria “must stop exporting violence and start importing democracy.”

Bush’s political adviser Karl Rove, who is still under the cloud of the CIA leak investigation, hopped Air Force One to attend Bush’s speech.

Dick Cheney’s speech

The president’s appearance came as Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at Arlington National Cemetery, where the president traditionally goes on Veterans Day.

Cheney laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and told a crowd of 6,000 at the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheatre that U.S. forces have toppled two dictatorships and liberated 50 million people.

“Difficult missions are still to come, and we cannot know every turn that lies ahead,” he said. “Yet we can be certain that by the resolve of our country, by the rightness of our cause … we will prevail.”