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October 25th, 2006 - Bush Tells
U.S. ‘I’m Not Happy With Iraq’ |
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Bush Tells U.S. ‘I’m Not Happy
With Iraq’ By Caroline Daniel in Washington Financial Times October 25 2006 18:56 President George W Bush on
Wednesday sought to align himself with the concerns of the American people
about progress in Iraq when he said he was “not satisfied either” with the
swelling violence. But he said it was up to American troops to “prevent the
full scale civil war from happening in the first place”. Amid growing concern that US
troops are presiding over a sectarian struggle, Mr Bush said he had no
intention of “standing in the crossfire between rival factions in Iraq”. But
he said the events of the last month had been a serious concern. His sombre comments came
during a press conference in which Mr Bush sought to take charge of the Iraq
narrative, over which the White House has appeared to lose control. During the past week, each
day a senior military official or high-ranking Republican, from John Warner,
chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, to Lindsay Graham, a pro-war
Republican senator, have warned openly about the chaos in Iraq. After rejecting calls for a
timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, calling those who sought them defeatist,
the Bush administration is now embracing the concept of “benchmarks”. Mr Bush
sought to draw a semantic distinction between “deadlines” and “benchmarks”. “There’s a significant
difference between benchmarks for a government to achieve and a timetable for
withdrawal,” he said. In recent weeks the Bush
administration rhetoric has shifted away from “staying the course”, towards
emphasising flexibility in tactics, and the need for the Iraqi government to
take more responsibility. The definition of victory in Iraq has also been scaled
back, with Mr Bush saying the goal is an Iraq that can “defend, govern and
sustain itself”. In November 2005 however, in
the Victory in Iraq document, the creation of democracy was the key goal. The
document said the short term view of victory was an “Iraq that is making
steady progress in fighting terrorists, meeting political milestones,
building democratic institutions and standing up security forces,” and set a
medium term goal of putting a “fully constitutional government in place”. The only reference on
Wednesday to Iraq as a democracy, was when Mr Bush said the US could not
impose its views on “a sovereign government”. Although Mr Bush said he
would be willing to consider any “proposal that will help us achieve
victory”, he did not say that he would be willing to engage with Iran and
Syria on resolving tensions in Iraq. “Iran and Syria understand full well
that the world expects them to help Iraq and we’ve made that very clear to
them.” US military officials in
Baghdad in recent weeks have stepped up criticism of Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki for avoiding tough decisions. However, Mr Bush on Wednesday
defended him as “the right man to achieve the goal in Iraq”, and pledged to
“not put more pressure on the Iraqi government than it can bear”. Mr Maliki on Wednesday
rejected pressure by the US to take early decisions on measures to control
militias. Mr Bush also defended Donald
Rumsfeld, secretary of defence, against calls for his resignation, saying he
was “a smart, tough, capable administrator”. Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2006 External link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5a56af80-6451-11db-ab21-0000779e2340.html |