- Bush Still Upbeat on Outcome In Iraq
On Third Anniversary Of Invasion, President Foresees 'Victory'
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 20, 2006; Page A01
President Bush and Vice President Cheney hailed the progress being made by Iraqi leaders to form a unity government yesterday, as the administration tried to dispel a growing perception that a continuing wave of sectarian violence has pushed Iraq into a full-fledged civil war.
Bush, speaking on the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, assured Americans that his administration is pursuing a strategy "that will lead to victory in Iraq," an outcome about which polls show the public is increasingly skeptical.
President Bush speaks to the media yesterday upon his return from Camp David to the White House on the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. He said the U.S. strategy "will lead to victory in Iraq." (By Jonathan Ernst -- Reuters)
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Cheney, meanwhile, dismissed assertions made by former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi that the nation is in the throes of civil war. He said Iraq is holding together as a new constitutional democracy even as terrorists are desperately trying to cause its dissolution.
"What we've seen is a serious effort by them to foment civil war, but I don't think they've been successful," Cheney said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
The upbeat appraisals by Bush and Cheney came as other voices struck a more ominous note. Allawi contradicted Bush's progress report, saying the country is edging toward "the point of no return."
"We are losing a day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Allawi said on BBC's "Sunday AM" program. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
Three years after U.S.-led forces quickly swept through Iraq, the country remains in the grips of a bloody insurgency. The war and its aftermath have left dead more than 2,300 U.S. troops and at least 30,000 Iraqis. Negotiations to form a unity government to lead Iraq have been deadlocked since parliamentary elections in December.
The anniversary was marked by protests around the country and around the world, as thousands of antiwar demonstrators gathered in cities from London to Tokyo. In New York, a crowd of about 200 people marched down Fifth Avenue to protest the war. Demonstrators also marched through storm-ravaged New Orleans, saying the slow pace of recovery there illustrates the cost of the war in Iraq.
Meanwhile, a growing majority of Americans believe the effort is not worth the cost, both financially and in lives lost. A Washington Post-ABC News pollthis month found that two-thirds of Americans questioned whether the United States has a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq.
As the administration offered optimistic appraisals of the war's progress, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a frequent administration critic who is weighing a run for president in 2008, echoed Allawi's assessment, saying that Iraq is already in the midst of a "low-grade civil war."
"I think it's important that we stop this talk about we're not going to leave until we achieve victory," Hagel said on ABC's "This Week." "Well, what is victory? We achieved victory: Saddam's gone, the Iraqis have a constitution, they had an election, it's now up to them."
Hagel said a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be a mistake. But he added that the Bush administration should work harder to achieve a political settlement in Iraq by engaging other Middle Eastern countries in a negotiated solution.
Despite Americans' growing pessimism, the Bush administration is continuing to press ahead with its strategy, saying that it is steadily moving toward success. Bush is scheduled to deliver a speech in Cleveland today, which is part of a continuing administration effort to rebuild the eroding public support for the war by having the president speak regularly to specific elements of the war strategy.
Bush, who spoke on the White House South Lawn after returning from a weekend at Camp David, said that he is encouraged by Iraq's continuing steps toward democracy, and that he is urging Iraqi leaders "to work hard to get this government up and running." Bush said he spoke by phone yesterday to Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, who he said remains encouraged by the political progress being made in Iraq.
Sectarian violence intensified after last month's bombing of the Golden Mosque, a revered Shiite religious site in Samarra. Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in brutal attacks, counterattacks and kidnappings since the mosque bombing.
Although a growing majority of Americans have come to believe that the U.S. invasion was an error and that the nation is headed toward civil war, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the U.S. military commander in Iraq, brushed aside the idea on "Fox News Sunday." "I personally don't believe one, that we're there now; two, that civil war is imminent; and three, that it is inevitable and it will happen," he said.
Meanwhile, Cheney said that Iraq is progressing toward establishing a functioning democracy. He pointed out that Iraq has gone from the brutal rule of Hussein to negotiations to form a government in three years. In addition, he said, the United States is making substantial progress in training Iraqi security forces, who he said are leading about half the missions in Iraq.
Cheney also dismissed a statement by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who said the war in Iraq should never have been fought: "I would not look to Ted Kennedy for guidance and leadership on how we ought to manage national security. . . . I think what Senator Kennedy reflects is sort of the pre-9/11 mentality about how we ought to deal with the world and that part of the world."
But CBS anchor Bob Schieffer bluntly challenged Cheney on his own string of prognostications, such as his pre-invasion assertion that U.S. troops would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators and, 10 months ago, that the insurgency was in its "last throes."
Cheney replied that those statements were "basically accurate and reflect reality," but that public perceptions of Iraq's progress are being skewed "because what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad."
Again linking the war in Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Cheney called the conflict part of "an aggressive, forward-leaning" strategy that has since prevented terrorist incidents in the United States.
Kennedy, meanwhile, put out his own statement chastising Cheney: "He was wrong about the link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. He was wrong about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. He was wrong about America being greeted as liberators. He was wrong about the insurgency being in the last throes. Now he rejects the idea of civil war."
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