Bush marks 5th anniversary of Iraq war

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US President George W. Bush has marked the fifth  anniversary of the US led invasion of Iraq.(CCTV.com)

He said faster and larger withdrawals could unravel recent progress.

George W. Bush, US President, said, "We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast - the terrorists and extremists step in, they fill vacuums, establish safe havens, and use them to spread chaos and carnage. General Petraeus has warned that too fast a drawdown could result in such an unravelling."

Bush is trying to shore up support for the Iraq campaign, which has damaged the US government's credibility.

Critics used the anniversary as a chance to reassert accusations that Bush launched the invasion based on faulty intelligence, mismanaged the war and failed to put together an exit strategy.

The US has already spent 500 billion dollars on the military operation and nearly 4,000 US soldiers have been killed.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed with millions displaced.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei