President Bush arrived in Latvia Tuesday for a NATO summit. In a speech in the capital Riga, the president again dismissed calls for a withdrawal from Iraq.

President Bush: “We’ll continue to be flexible, and we’ll make the changes necessary to succeed. But there is one thing I’m not going to do: I’m not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete. The battles in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of a struggle between moderation and extremism that is unfolding across the broader Middle East.”

President Bush also repeated his position the U.S. will not negotiate with Iran until it abandons nuclear activities. Meanwhile in Iraq, Pentagon spokesperson Major General William Caldwell was dismissive when asked whether the violence in Iraq can be seen as a civil war.

Major General William Caldwell: “We don’t see somebody competing for control of the country here at all. What we see is a country that is still functioning and still has duly elected representatives in charge who are able to give instructions and orders to their security forces, who are responsive to them. Again, challenges, we still find them in the police forces, and we deal with them as we find them and keep moving forward. It has progressively gotten better down there, not worse, in the security forces, but we do have plenty of ways still to go. I mean, it’s like we said last week: This isn’t a sprint; we are in a marathon.”