"I can tell you that...he's not going to back down in terms of his responsibilities," Bush said on a visit to the Marine Corps Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina.

"You're going to see that through the victory," he said. "He's ever proud of Marines. I talk to him all the time and he mentions the pride he has in this service and the pride he has in all our forces abroad," said Bush, who was president during the 1990-91 Gulf War.

"And so you ought to know that, you never ought to worry about the commander-in-chief leaving you out in the lurch or not following through on his responsabilities, just as every Marine is following through on his or her responsabilities, now, as they have always in the past," said the elder Bush.

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