WASHINGTON,
March 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Marking the
third war anniversary, US President George W. Bush defended on Monday,
March 20, his decision to invade Iraq without a UN mandate, while his
envoy to Baghdad admitted the country was bleeding three years after the
war.
"In
the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand
how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," Bush said in
a second of a series of speeches aimed at reversing the steep decline in
public support for the war, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Others
look at the violence they see each night on their television screens and
they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of
success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't," he said.
Bush
insisted that his decision to remove the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein
by force was "the right decision."
Acting
without a UN mandate, US-led forces invaded oil-rich Iraq in March 2003,
under the pretext of imminent threat posed by the country’s alleged
weapons of mass destruction, none of which was ever found.
Bush
insisted that the United States will not abandon Iraq.
"We
will leave Iraq, but when we do, it will be from a position of strength,
not weakness," he added.
In
recent speeches, in late 2005 and early 2006, Bush has defended his
flawed case for launching the Iraq war but acknowledged
"mistakes" in the post-invasion period.
Bleeding
Iraq
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"Iraq has come through a very difficult period and it's still in a difficult situation." Khalilzad said. (Reuters)
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US
Ambassador in Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said the country was bleeding three
years after the war.
"The
country is bleeding," he told an interview with ABC television's
"World News Tonight" on Monday.
"This
is a particular period of vulnerability," he said.
Up
to 400 people, mostly Sunnis, were killed in indiscriminate attacks on
Sunni mosques and people triggered by the February bombing of the Imam
Ali Al-Hadi shrine, one of Iraq's most revered Shiite places in the
northern city of Samarra.
The
US diplomat admitted there were sectarian killings taking place in Iraq,
but not a civil war.
"There
is the sectarian tensions and there is sectarian killing. Civil war, in
my judgment, is not here yet," he said.
"A
civil war will take place if the state institutions that exist
disintegrate or they decide to choose sides and fight each other. And
that has not happened. But people are getting killed. Some are getting
killed because of their sectarian beliefs," Khalilzad said.
Former
Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi said on Sunday, March 19, that ethnic
cleansing was ongoing in Iraq.
A
day earlier, the former premier, a one-time Pentagon favorite who gained
a reputation as a tough politician with security as his main trump card,
said Iraq was in the midst of a civil war.
Khalilzad
said the failure of the Iraqi parties to agree on forming a national
unity government has been instrumental in the ongoing violence in the
country.
"The
terrorists who are seeking to provoke a civil war find the particular
circumstances now -- which is there is no government of national unity
-- a particularly good period for them to exploit the vacuum that
exists."
Iraqi
parties have been deadlocked over forming a national unity government
since the December election to choose the first full-term parliament.
The
Iraqi political parties on Sunday, March 19, suspended their
negotiations on forming a new government for one week.
Looking
back over the past three years, Khalilzad said "one hoped that one
would be in a better situation than one is right now.
"Iraq
has come through a very difficult period and it's still in a difficult
situation."
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