Bush finds hope despite deadly week in Iraq

In his radio address, Bush
discussed a new offensive called Phantom Strike.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush sought to reassure the nation Saturday that he sees “signs of progress” in Iraq, especially at the local level, despite a week that saw the deadliest suicide bombing since the American-led invasion in 2003.

In his weekly radio address, Bush argued that “Americans can be encouraged” by evidence of reconciliation in several mostly rural provinces that previously suffered intense sectarian violence or served as hotbeds of the insurgency.

In Anbar province, Bush said, “virtually every city and town” now has a mayor and functioning municipal council, Bush said. He cited similar political advances in parts of Muthanna, Diyala and Ninewa provinces. Iraq has 18 provinces in all.

Bush conceded that the central Iraqi government has failed to produce similar political progress despite an increase in U.S. troop levels and a six-month security crackdown. But he contended that reconciliation at the local level “will help create conditions for reconciliation in Baghdad as well.”

Growing criticism

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government in Baghdad faces mounting criticism in Washington, D.C., for incompetence, sloth and sectarianism. Eleven Cabinet ministers have boycotted the struggling government in recent weeks, while six other slots remain empty, and the Parliament insisted on taking August off.

Bush’s optimistic comments, which he taped while on vacation on his ranch, help set the stage for a crucial Sept. 15 report to Congress that will assess progress in Iraq. The White House report will rely on the assessments of U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and senior military leaders, notably Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, and Adm. William J. Fallon, the American commander in the Middle East.

They have not reported or made recommendations to the White House, however, and Bush “has made no decisions yet on the way ahead,” Gordon Johndroe, a deputy White House spokesman, told reporters in Crawford. “We’ll just have to see.”

Johndroe denied published reports that the White House planned to bar Crocker and Petraeus from appearing in public to discuss their conclusions and advice. Both men, Johndroe said, will testify in open session to relevant congressional committees.

In his radio address, Bush said that U.S. and Iraqi forces have “struck powerful blows against al-Qaida terrorists and violent extremists [in Anbar and other restive provinces].”

Phantom Strike

In a new offensive called Phantom Strike, Bush said, “We are carrying out targeted operations against terrorists and extremists fleeing Baghdad and other key cities to prevent them from returning or setting up new bases of operations.”

Experts say the militant group al-Qaida in Mesopotamia is a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist organization that utilizes a corps of foreign fighters to launch suicide bombings and other terror attacks. The group has claimed a loose affiliation to Osama bin Laden’s network, but the precise links are unknown.

Bush said “our hearts go out” to the families of the more than 250 villagers, mostly members of the Yazidi religious sect, who were killed Tuesday in four coordinated bombings in northern Iraq, near the Syrian border. The area lies north of the latest American offensive but Bush vowed that “our troops are going to go after the murderers behind this horrific attack.”