Iraqis give mixed response to Bush vow to stay on
Iraqis give mixed response to Bush vow to stay on
Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:43 AM ET
By Omar Anwar
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Bush's vow to Americans to stick with the war in Iraq despite mounting losses won a mixed reception in Baghdad, where Iraqis expressed both resentment and gratitude on Wednesday.
In a half-hour address to U.S. troops, televised nationwide ahead of the July 4 Independence Day holiday, Bush tied Iraq to his global campaign against anti-American Islamist militants.
"Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we will fight them there, we will fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won," he said on the anniversary of the formal return of sovereignty to Iraqis.
There would be no timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops, he said, although the 140,000-strong force would not be enlarged and would "stand down" as Iraqis were trained to "stand up."
Many Iraqis in the capital, weary after more than two years of bloodshed and economic dislocation, view U.S. troops with a degree of mistrust but also as a bulwark against sectarian violence they fear might trigger civil war if they left.
Grateful, in the main, for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, many are dismayed by what they see as heavy-handed tactics and a failure by the U.S. occupiers to prevent Iraq becoming a new haven for foreign Islamists in the chaos that followed Saddam.
"Why don't they find another place to fight terrorism?" asked Abdul Ridha al-Hafadhi, 58, head of a humanitarian aid group. "I don't feel comforted by Bush's remarks; there must be a timetable for their departure."
NO TIMETABLE
Bush, who is confronting sliding opinion poll support at home for his handling of Iraq, said setting any kind of timetable would encourage the insurgents.
But Jameel al-Hadithi, a 63-year-old bookshop owner, felt this was an ominous sign: "Clearly they are planning to stay a long time and terrorist attacks and resistance will increase."
"They didn't come to Iraq for the sake of the Iraqi people. Their aim was to deflect terrorism from their own country."
Surveyor Saad al-Rubaie, 33, said however: "Bush and America decided to help the Iraqi people and that is in our interest."
Though Bush's Democratic Party opponents criticized what they called a lack of direction in his remarks, Bush insisted his plan was clear and had both military and political aspects.
U.S. strategy to end the Sunni Arab insurgency involves applying constant pressure to those seen as implacable enemies while drawing others off the streets and into peaceful politics.
On Wednesday U.S. forces arrested Dhahir al-Dhari, leader of one of Iraq's largest Sunni tribes, whose brother is the head of the main Sunni religious body, the Muslim Clerics' Association.
But another Sunni leader, Ayham al-Samarai, a former minister in the previous, U.S.-backed interim government, launched a new political movement, saying he aimed to give a voice to figures from the "legitimate Iraqi resistance."
"The birth of this political bloc is to silence the skeptics who say there is no legitimate Iraqi resistance and that they cannot reveal their political face," he told a news conference.
Violence has worsened sharply in Iraq since the Shi'ite- and Kurd-led government took power two months ago.
On Wednesday Polish troops in Diwaniya south of Baghdad said they killed attackers who threw a grenade near their patrol, wounding two Poles. U.S. forces said a mortar in Tal Afar near Mosul in the north killed four civilians.
Thousands of people turned out in Baghdad for the funeral of Dhari Ali al-Fayadh, the oldest member of the new parliament, who was killed by a suicide car bomber on Tuesday along with five of his entourage.
Also buried was a journalist whose family said he was shot by U.S. soldiers who apparently took him for a suicide bomber.
The bulk of the insurgents, who have harried U.S. forces with dozens of daily attacks costing more than 1,700 lives, are Iraqi Sunnis. They have made common cause with small numbers of guerrillas drawn from the wider Sunni Arab world, like al Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who have come to wage holy war.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Waleed Ibrahim, Peter Graff and Lutfi Abu Oun)
All rights reserved.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8929301
Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:43 AM ET
By Omar Anwar
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Bush's vow to Americans to stick with the war in Iraq despite mounting losses won a mixed reception in Baghdad, where Iraqis expressed both resentment and gratitude on Wednesday.
In a half-hour address to U.S. troops, televised nationwide ahead of the July 4 Independence Day holiday, Bush tied Iraq to his global campaign against anti-American Islamist militants.
"Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we will fight them there, we will fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won," he said on the anniversary of the formal return of sovereignty to Iraqis.
There would be no timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops, he said, although the 140,000-strong force would not be enlarged and would "stand down" as Iraqis were trained to "stand up."
Many Iraqis in the capital, weary after more than two years of bloodshed and economic dislocation, view U.S. troops with a degree of mistrust but also as a bulwark against sectarian violence they fear might trigger civil war if they left.
Grateful, in the main, for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, many are dismayed by what they see as heavy-handed tactics and a failure by the U.S. occupiers to prevent Iraq becoming a new haven for foreign Islamists in the chaos that followed Saddam.
"Why don't they find another place to fight terrorism?" asked Abdul Ridha al-Hafadhi, 58, head of a humanitarian aid group. "I don't feel comforted by Bush's remarks; there must be a timetable for their departure."
NO TIMETABLE
Bush, who is confronting sliding opinion poll support at home for his handling of Iraq, said setting any kind of timetable would encourage the insurgents.
But Jameel al-Hadithi, a 63-year-old bookshop owner, felt this was an ominous sign: "Clearly they are planning to stay a long time and terrorist attacks and resistance will increase."
"They didn't come to Iraq for the sake of the Iraqi people. Their aim was to deflect terrorism from their own country."
Surveyor Saad al-Rubaie, 33, said however: "Bush and America decided to help the Iraqi people and that is in our interest."
Though Bush's Democratic Party opponents criticized what they called a lack of direction in his remarks, Bush insisted his plan was clear and had both military and political aspects.
U.S. strategy to end the Sunni Arab insurgency involves applying constant pressure to those seen as implacable enemies while drawing others off the streets and into peaceful politics.
On Wednesday U.S. forces arrested Dhahir al-Dhari, leader of one of Iraq's largest Sunni tribes, whose brother is the head of the main Sunni religious body, the Muslim Clerics' Association.
But another Sunni leader, Ayham al-Samarai, a former minister in the previous, U.S.-backed interim government, launched a new political movement, saying he aimed to give a voice to figures from the "legitimate Iraqi resistance."
"The birth of this political bloc is to silence the skeptics who say there is no legitimate Iraqi resistance and that they cannot reveal their political face," he told a news conference.
Violence has worsened sharply in Iraq since the Shi'ite- and Kurd-led government took power two months ago.
On Wednesday Polish troops in Diwaniya south of Baghdad said they killed attackers who threw a grenade near their patrol, wounding two Poles. U.S. forces said a mortar in Tal Afar near Mosul in the north killed four civilians.
Thousands of people turned out in Baghdad for the funeral of Dhari Ali al-Fayadh, the oldest member of the new parliament, who was killed by a suicide car bomber on Tuesday along with five of his entourage.
Also buried was a journalist whose family said he was shot by U.S. soldiers who apparently took him for a suicide bomber.
The bulk of the insurgents, who have harried U.S. forces with dozens of daily attacks costing more than 1,700 lives, are Iraqi Sunnis. They have made common cause with small numbers of guerrillas drawn from the wider Sunni Arab world, like al Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who have come to wage holy war.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Waleed Ibrahim, Peter Graff and Lutfi Abu Oun)
All rights reserved.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8929301
posted by JimG at 11:33 AM
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