Bush says no timetable for Iraq withdrawal
US President George Bush today assured Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari “there’s not going to be any timetable” for withdrawal of American forces and vowed victory over insurgents attempting to prevent establishment of a democratic government.
“This is not the time to fall back,” al-Jaafari said at a joint news conference at the White House.
Fielding questions hours after the latest attack on a US military convoy left an unknown number of American troops dead, Bush conceded it bothers Americans to see scenes of carnage on television.
Speaking of the insurgents, he said: “There’s no question there’s an enemy that still wants to shake our will and get us to leave.
…They try to kill and they do kill innocent Iraqi people, women and children because they know that the carnage that they reap will be on TV and they know that it bothers people to see death.
“It does. It bothers me. It bothers American citizens. It bothers Iraqis.”
Bush said he would stay the course in Iraq despite public opinion polls showing dwindling support for his policy. He indicated his awareness of his domestic critics when a reporter began asking a question about whether he was concerned about a “slump” in his support.
“Quagmire?” the president suggested instead, employing a word that some Democrats in Congress have begun to use to describe the military presence in Iraq one year after the transfer of sovereignty.
Al-Jaafari, seemed to recognise the domestic pressure on the president.
“You have given us more than money You have given us your sons…this is more precious than any other support we have received,” he said.
More than 1,700 American troops have died in Iraq, the majority of them since the end of hostilities aimed at toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein. There have been 479 car bombs in Iraq since the handover of sovereignty on June 28, 2004, according to an AP count.
Bush will mark the one year anniversary of the transfer of authority to an Iraqi government next Tuesday with a speech to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
An Iraqi reporter asked the two men when reconstruction would begin in the war-torn country.
Bush said he wasn’t trying to “pass the buck,” but looked at al-Jaafari and said “they’re in charge,” meaning the Iraqis.
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