Thursday, August 23, 2007
The positive remark was inserted at the last minute into a speech Wednesday.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — President Bush devoted just one sentence of a lengthy speech Wednesday to emphasizing his support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Yet the president’s folksy endorsement sucked the wind out of his latest justification for the war in Iraq.
Having appeared to distance himself from al-Maliki the day before and under pressure to reaffirm his backing for the Iraqi leader, Bush uttered a few words that stole the spotlight: “Prime Minister Maliki is a good guy, good man with a difficult job, and I support him.”
Bush’s validation of al-Maliki, inserted at the last minute into his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, detracted from Bush’s attempt to buttress support for the war by likening today’s fight against extremism to past conflicts in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
The president’s speech — and another one like it next Tuesday at the American Legion convention in Reno, Nev. — are intended to set the stage for a crucial report next month on the progress of the fighting and steps toward political reconciliation in Iraq. Democrats in Congress and some Republicans are pressing to start the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
Says he sees progress
Arguing that the buildup of U.S. forces was showing results, Bush said, “Our troops are seeing this progress that is being made on the ground. And as they take the initiative from the enemy, they have a question: ‘Will their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just as they’re gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq?”’
Comparing Iraq with earlier wars, Bush said, “The question now before us comes down to this: ‘Will today’s generation of Americans resist the deceptive allure of retreat and do in the Middle East what veterans in this room did in Asia?”’
Bush had appeared on Tuesday to be distancing himself from the Iraqi leader when he said at a North American summit in Canada: “Clearly, the Iraqi government’s got to do more.” The White House denied Bush was backing away from al-Maliki, but it was lukewarm endorsement compared with Bush’s calling al-Maliki “the right guy for Iraq” last November in Jordan.
Al-Maliki reaction
Al-Maliki, on a trip to Syria, quickly lashed back at U.S. criticism. He said that no one has the right to impose timetables on his elected government and that Iraq can “find friends elsewhere.” Without naming any American official, al-Maliki said some criticism of him and his government in recent days had been “discourteous.”
On Monday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., urged Iraq’s Parliament to oust al-Maliki and replace his government with a more unifying one. Iraq is so divided along sectarian and ethnic lines, however, that there’s doubt as to whether any other politician could do a better job.
Then on Tuesday, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker echoed Bush’s frustration, saying progress on national issues had been “extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned.”
Bush, who has rejected Iraq-Vietnam comparisons in the past, linked the U.S. pullout back then to the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Foreign policy analysts took issue with Bush.
“The president emphasized the violence in the wake of American withdrawal from Vietnam. But this happened because the United States left too late, not too early,” said Steven Simon, a Mideast expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It was the expansion of the war that opened the door to [Khmer Rouge leader] Pol Pot and the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. The longer you stay the worse it gets.”