The Bulgarian Post
2007-01-11 09:32:05

George W. Bush told Americans he would send over 20,000 more U.S. troops to halt Iraq's collapse into civil war but many Iraqis -- and the president's opponents in Congress -- were skeptical the increase could do much good.

"To step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government, tear that country apart and result in mass killings on an unimaginable scale," Bush said in a televised address, rejecting calls for him to start a gradual withdrawal.

As voters questioned the value of adding to the 3,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq, Bush said the Iraqi government must keep promises to rein in militants on all sides to retain his backing -- restating a condition some analysts see as pre-emptively shifting responsibility for any future failure to end bloodshed.

"America's commitment is not open-ended," said Bush, whose own term, indelibly marked by the Iraq war, ends in two years.

"If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises it will lose the support of the American people," he said, making a rare acknowledgment of past errors. "The year ahead will demand more patience, sacrifice and resolve."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to lead the new Baghdad security operation and indicated it will strike not only insurgents from Saddam Hussein's once dominant Sunni minority but also militias loyal to fellow Shi'ites -- a key demand of Washington and Sunnis, who say Iran is backing Shi'ite gunmen.

Responses to the latest plan highlighted sectarian divides, with Sunnis hoping for the best and many Shi'ites increasingly resentful of the continued presence of the Americans.

Maliki's spokesman repeated on Thursday that Iraq had played a full role in the plan and "militias ... outside the government will be considered illegal." Ali al-Dabbagh said he could not yet say when the plan might go into effect.

Bush renewed complaints about the role of Syria and Shi'ite Iran in Iraq and U.S. troops raided an Iranian consular office in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil overnight, arresting five Iranians in the second such operation in the past month.

In Sadr City, the Baghdad slum bastion of the Mehdi Army militia led by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, residents said U.S. and Iraqi troops staged an overnight raid on militants.

Such raids are not uncommon but Sunni leaders complain -- as U.S. commanders have done -- that too little was done last year to strike Shi'ite groups blamed for some of the death squad killings. Police found 60 bodies around the city on Wednesday alone, and many thousands have fled their homes.

 

Bush's Democratic opponents, now controlling Congress, vowed to resist but are unlikely to block a four-month phased increase of 21,500 troops that would push the U.S. force, now at 127,000 according to the military in Iraq, back to its level four months ago when its previous push to secure Baghdad was failing.

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