  |
Bush opens Iraq strategy overhaul
By Olivier Knox
AFP
CAMP DAVID, Maryland
Petroleumworld.com 06 14 06US President George W. Bush on Monday said talk of a US withdrawal from Iraq was premature but placed new leaders in Baghdad squarely in charge of ultimately pacifying their country.
Bush suggested that the fledgling government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki should tap Iraq's vast oil reserves to create a special fund to help Iraqis, securing support against militants behind a bloody insurgency.
"The best way to win this war against an insurgency is to stand up a unity government which is capable of defending itself but also providing tangible benefits to the people," he said at the Camp David retreat in Maryland.
His comments came after the first of two days of high-level talks with top US diplomatic and military officials to reassess the war effort in Iraq. He was to speak to Maliki and his aides via videoconference on Tuesday.
Bush also urged Iraq's neighbors and the international community to do more to help Maliki's new government and vowed to target the successor to Al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last week.
"The successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice," said Bush, who called the Jordan-born extremist's death "a major blow" to Osama bin Laden's group but warned it is "not going to end the war."
Amid mounting pressure to bring some or all US troops home, the president said that the commander of US forces in Iraq, General George Casey, would assess how well Maliki's team was doing in defeating the insurgency.
"Whatever we do will be based upon the conditions on the ground. And whatever we do will be toward a strategy of victory," said Bush. "This is a process of understanding the Iraqi capabilities."
A senior White House official said that the new leadership in Iraq -- the first permanent government since Saddam Hussein's ouster three years ago -- marked a "break point" that left Iraqis "in charge" of their country.
That rhetoric, and recent emphasis on the role the international community must play, suggest a new effort to shift the burden for Iraq from Washington and a few other countries to a broader base.
The US president also suggested that Iraq's vast oil reserves might be one of Maliki's best weapons against those who seek to destabilize his government, proposing the creation of a special fund to help the Iraqi people.
"The new government is going to have to figure out how best to lease the people's lands in a fair way," said Bush.
"My own view is that the government ought to use the oil as a way to unite the country and ought to think about having, you know, a tangible fund for the people so the people have faith in the central government," he said.
Bush also insisted that "Iraq's neighbors ought to do more to help them. And we're constantly working with our friends in the neighborhood to encourage them to support this new democracy."
"We expect our friends who have made commitments -- 13 billion dollars -- to honor those commitments," he said, referring to the amount pledged by donors other than the United States at an Iraq aid conference in October 2003.
Bush summoned senior advisers and outside experts to Camp David for long-distance talks with military and diplomatic officials in Baghdad on how to help Maliki's government secure its footing.
US officials said they were most concerned with finding ways to help Maliki achieve stated goals like boosting electricity generation, securing Baghdad, and curbing sectarian violence.
The pressure on Bush has grown as his Republican party worries increasingly about key November congressional elections that are expected to be dominated by the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.
AFP 13 00 06 GMT 06 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels