Bush: Iraq Violence A Necessary Part Of Development

WASHINGTON — President Bush declared on Friday that Iraq stands at a defining moment as it struggles to put down heavily armed Shiite militias in new flare-ups of violence that threaten to undercut security gains and sway his decision about U.S. troop drawdowns.

In Baghdad, Shiite extremists lobbed rockets and mortars against the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which has come under steady barrages this week. The U.S. sent a Hellfire missile into a Shiite stronghold in the city. And in the south, fighting escalated in Basra where the mettle of Iraqi security forces is being sorely tested.

"Any government that presumes to represent the majority of people must confront criminal elements or people who think they can live outside the law," Bush said at the White House. "And that's what's taking place in Basra and in other parts of Iraq. I would say this is a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq."

It's also a key juncture for Bush in the five-year-old war that has claimed 4,000 American lives, worn U.S. forces thin and dominated his presidency.

Bush said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's crackdown in Basra against Shiite militias vying for control of the oil-rich region is a positive milestone in the birth of a democratic nation. The Iraqi prime minister's decision to move against enemy elements in Basra shows "evenhanded justice" and the Iraqi government's willingness to go after both Sunni and Shiite insurgents and outlaws, he said.

Just as important is how the violence plays out. The ability of Iraqi security forces to control places like Basra will color the president's decision on whether to order more U.S. troop withdrawals beyond the five U.S. brigades already returning home by July _ something that's already looking unlikely.

The renewed violence, which has followed months of relative calm, threatened to unravel a fragile cease-fire with followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. How much U.S. troops are drawn into the fight will be a telling sign of the Iraqi forces' ability to protect the nation.

Bush stressed that those Iraqi forces remained in the lead, yet U.S. forces stepped deeper into the fight.

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U.S. pilots assisting Iraqi forces conducted airstrikes on Basra on Friday. American jets dropped bombs in the city, marking a sharp escalation in the fight against insurgents the Pentagon accuses of having links to Iran.

Bush said he did not know what triggered al-Maliki to act.

"This was his decision," Bush said during a news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who is pulling 550 Australian troops out of Iraq.

Bush said of al-Maliki: "It was his military planning. It was his causing the troops to go from point A to point B. And it's exactly what a lot of folks here in America were wondering whether or not Iraq would even be able to do in the first place."

While he praised the Iraqi government's actions, he cautioned that the situation in Iraq remains "dangerous and fragile." He urged patience.

"They're fighting some pretty tough characters, people who kill innocent people to achieve objectives," he said. "And, yes, there's going to be violence, and that's sad. But this situation needed to be dealt with, and it's now being dealt with."

The Iraqi military campaign has triggered Shiite uprisings in other parts of the country, and, if the violence is not contained it could force U.S. officials to rethink further cutbacks in troop levels.

Early next month, Bush is expected to endorse a temporary halt in the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has warned against shrinking the American force so rapidly that the gains in security will be compromised.

The latest tally of casualties over the past several weeks shows more high spikes than in previous months _ including several days with 100 or more U.S. military, Iraqi military and Iraqi civilian deaths.

Officials say they are not yet certain whether the upturn in casualties represents a trend of increased violence. And it is not clear that Petraeus will be able to make such a conclusion before he goes before Congress April 8.

___

Associated Press Writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.

Comments

[vinny]

amazing how one man can cause so much pain and suffering for so many millions...

[StarkRavingNakedEmperor]

Take a look into that little boy's eyes and learn how America creates suicide bombers.

[LanosIceland]

HuffPost's Pick

Since when is violence nescessary to the developement of a free society? Violence is evidence of a fractured society.
The Bush Administration places little value on diplomacy, on hard negotiations.
A different culture does things differently.
Sadr is not some radical renegade, and his supporters are not some bloodthirsty crazy militia.
Sadr City is home to Iraqs poorest , over 2milion, living on 8sq miles of land. Sadr City is poverty.
Since it's inception in 1959, as Revolution City, it has never profited from iraqs riches, even less so after the Baath Coup of 1963, when it became 'Saddam City', not as a personal honor, but as a symbol of humiliation to the residents, whom, even then, were the main fraction of resistance.
Sentenced to poverty by Quassim, then Hussein, and now, again disenfranchised, and under occupation.
Muktahda's father died for the struggle of Sadr City(executed by Saddam), and his son, the accepted leader of the resident, is no less willing to die.
So why not give these people their entitlement: schools, hospitals, infrastruktur, an economy, and a fair share in the politics and finances of Irak!
Al Sadr has legitimate arguments, the same as each other group representing a section of Iraqi society, and he rufuses to be pushed around, marginalised and disentranchised again. No more.
We have failed to recognise a half century struggle of Iraq's poorest people, for equal rights, and not willing to accept less than that.
An inconvienient truth, Mr Bush.

[transendentilist]

You must be joking. America is steeped in violence. We have been spilling blood, almost as long as we have been a nation.
Have you forgotten the revolutionary war? The civil war? The "Indian wars?" (genocide) WWII, WWI? Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and now Iraq??????
I am against this war in Iraq, and have been since before we launched Shock and Awe, but to naively say that free societies are not dependent on violence is simply not true. Freedom is wrestled away from oppressors, by violent means. Always has been that way. I was against the Vietnam war.
I certainly can appreciate someone being against wars, but it is just naive to think that freedom comes without violence. Just go to any V.A. Medical facility. They have signs that says, "The Price of Freedom Can Be Seen Here!"

[LanosIceland]

I understand your point but there is a difference. The oppressor has been removed, so who exactly is the ongoing conflict aimed at now? The situation on the ground now is nothing more than a power struggle between political factions. If Al Sadr Party is now the agressor, then so is Al Maliki's Dawa Party, and Al Hakims ISCI Party. This is not a war, it's a fight to fill a power vacuum. What is needed here are not soldiers of an occupying army; what the people (the parties) of Iraq need are negiotiators, diplomats.
Germany led the way after the main combat mission in Afghanistan was over, by convening a 'jirga' of tribal chiefs and political leaders, where plans and agreement were hammered out in an atmosphare of hard negotiations and mutual respect, and on neutral ground. America has provided any post war leadership. Send Carter, or Schroder, or Bill Clinton.
The combat mission is over.... where are the diplomats!

[MajorKong]

So, when violence is down that's good because that means the surge is working. When violence is up that's good because it's "a necessary part of development".

The simpler version of this is called "Heads I win, tails you lose".

[amanda85]

It's a real hoot to see the wingnuts claiming that Iraq needs a "strong" government to crack down on religious wackos. Guess what, **THEY HAD ONE** before the invasion...

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

One can also read the situation as the surge having been irrelevant.

Obviously, there's been no political reconciliation Sunni-Shiite, but now it's clear not even Shiite-Shiite.

And the reduced violence levels (if indeed there were), could better be attributed to Petraeus's DEALS with yesteryear's IED-planting Sunni Insurgents, who have effectively been granted AMNESTY for killing and maiming tens of thousands of US troops.

P.S., those deals undercut any imperative on the Sunnis to deal with al-Maliki -- rather than Petraeus. Petraeus's deal-making UNDERCUT political reconcilliation.

Impeach, impeach, impeach.

Until Inauguration Day 2009... impeach, impeach, impeach.

[IntelligentDesign]

Oh the existential psychosis of it all.

[Mikal]

Unquestionably, Mr. Bush is a dangerous moron. It frightens me that he actually believes the nonsense that he espouses. Equally, unimaginable, are the sycophant enablers who never show any sanity or character to challenge or disagree with the man. Is the proximity to power so seductive that it destroys the very souls of those who seek it out?

[Nochnoi]

Yes...

[Marlyn]

"It frightens me that he actually believes the nonsense that he espouses." ... But Mikal, maybe he doesn't believe any of it. The NeoCon ideology says the public needs a myth, but those delivering the myth are not required to believe in the myth themselves. For example, look at Karl Rove and how he promoted the Religious Right, but he himself is not religious.

[Marlyn]

"Is the proximity to power so seductive that it destroys the very souls of those who seek it out?" ... Obviously, YES, especially if you have spent your whole life doing it (lying).

[patriotscholar]

This guy is an embarrassment to any human being that thinks. He and his brethren that spout crap like this are certainly without consciences, and likely without real brains.

[liberalveteran]

Bush is very moderate for a Republican. John "Keating Five" McCain says he hopes Americans are killing Iraqis for the next hundred years. Apparently he studied the Hundred Years War in Medieval history class and wants to replicate it.

All Republicans, of course, will clap on cue.

[mcnary]

Bush is not worth a comment.

[GnitenGoodLk]

It's feeling awful drafty...brr....

[Jane22]

Having been gone from here for quite awhile, I do not like the new format! Hard to read: Print too small and colors too faint.

Perhaps Bush would not look so smug if it was one of his children severely wounded and killed daily due to his bankrupt policies. If he personally had to suffer, he might some compassion within for these victims of his policy. This is disgusting as is everything connected with this power-hungry pawn.

[donaldw6]

Little nuggets of truth, from the humanist perspective:

Our presence in Iraq is self-serving.

Our aim has been to control a precious oil resource and a strategic location in the Middle East.

Our presence in Iraq is making America less safe, not more.

Bush has no concern whatsoever for individual Iraqis or their freedom.

We are occupying the country, and maintaining a corrupt Iraqi government by means of force, which makes Iraq unfree by definition.

Our position in Iraq is morally, physically, and economically indefensible.

Iraq can never achieve self-determination as long as we are pulling the strings.

The Bush Administration continues to lie and misrepresent the facts. Al Qaeda in Iraq is represented by a tiny percentage in the country, with perhaps only 1,000 fighters who come from foreign countries, and a negligible percentage of Iraqis.

We can't even help Iraqis until we completely reverse our present stance, and renounce our selfish involvement in Iraq in favor of unselfish and deeply remorseful support of real Iraqi freedom and reconstruction.

We are entirely responsible for the destruction of Iraq, whose only fault was to tolerate a dictator that we ourselves had often supported when it suited our purposes. Iraq is owed massive and costly reparations for the damage we've done.

Just so you know where we're coming from.

[SILVANUS]

Evil smiles persist.

When will we have the guts to undo these people?

[Nochnoi]

November...

[Nochnoi]

Violence is never necessary.... only those who love death and war think so..........

[robbor]

where does he get these thoughts?

[boomer1949]

Lying on the couch of the White House psychiatrist.