WASHINGTON – A politically weakened President Bush declared Tuesday night that America must break its long dependence on Mideast oil and rebuked critics of his stay-the-course strategy for the unpopular war in Iraq.

“America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world,” Bush said as he sought to drive the election-year agenda in his annual State of the Union address.

Rejecting calls for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Bush said, “There is no peace in retreat.” He also slapped at those who complain he took the country to war on the erroneous grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

“Hindsight alone is not wisdom,” Bush said. “And second-guessing is not a strategy.”

In an unscripted moment, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq, was taken into custody by police in the House gallery just before Bush spoke to a joint session of Congress. She was escorted from the visitors’ gallery after she caused a disruption, a Capitol Police official said.

With Congress facing midterm elections in November, there was a partisan mood in the chamber.

Democrats stood and cheered when Bush said that Congress did not act a year ago “on my proposal to save Social Security.” Bush got a bemused look on his face, shook his finger and continued, “yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away.”

Switching gears, Bush asked lawmakers to join him in naming a commission to examine the impact of Baby Boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending.

He declared that “the state of our union is strong” despite Americans’ anxieties about the war in Iraq, the economy and soaring energy costs. Oil prices are inching toward $70 a barrel, throwing a cloud over the economy and pinching Americans’ pocketbooks.

Bush called for increased federal research into alternative fuels such as ethanol made from weeds or wood chips instead of corn.

Bush’s address came amid a changing of the guard elsewhere in Washington. Conservative judge Samuel Alito was sworn in as a new Supreme Court justice, replacing Sandra Day O’Connor, who has been a moderate swing vote. The Senate also confirmed Ben Bernanke to be chairman of the Federal Reserve, replacing Alan Greenspan after 18-and-a-half years in the influential job.

Alito was in the House chamber, alongside new Chief Justice John Roberts, another Bush nominee, and Justices Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas.

Facing budget deficits that may approach or exceed $400 billion this year, Bush had no room for expensive, new initiatives.

Spending on those three programs alone will be almost 60 percent of the federal budget by 2030, Bush said.

Three years from leaving office, Bush went before the nation as a politically weakened president after the toughest year of his administration. With Americans anxious about the economy, weary of the Iraq war and unhappy about the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush’s job approval rating is in the anemic high 30s to low 40s.

Health care is a priority for both parties, particularly since nearly 46 million Americans lack insurance. Democrats say that in 2005 alone, the number of uninsured grew by nearly a million.