Bush denies Iraq heading toward civil war

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush, hit by
polls showing America’s support for the Iraq war at an all-time
low, denied on Tuesday Iraq was sliding into civil war, despite
the worst sectarian strife since a U.S. invasion.

The decline in Bush’s public approval ratings came as he
told Iraqis they faced a choice between “chaos or unity” amid
violence that has dented U.S. hopes for the stability needed to
pave the way for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

At least 60 people were killed in Baghdad on Tuesday in the
latest in a series of deadly attacks following the bombing of a
major Shi’ite mosque last week.

Asked what Washington would do if civil war broke out in
Iraq, Bush told ABC News: “I don’t buy your premise that
there’s going to be a civil war.”

He said he had spoken to leaders of all Iraqi sects and “I
heard loud and clear that they understand that they’re going to
choose unification, and we’re going to help them do so.”

Despite that, sectarian bloodshed has complicated efforts
to forge a new unity government.

At home, pessimism over Iraq, and Bush’s support — despite
bipartisan objections — for letting a state-owned Arab company
take over operations at six U.S. ports, appeared to be major
factors driving his job performance rating down to 34 percent.

They were the lowest CBS News poll numbers of his
presidency, creating a grim picture in a midterm election year.

Bush brushed aside the findings, saying ups and downs in
the polls were not worth worrying about.

“I’ve got ample capital and I’m using it to spread freedom
and to protect the American people,” he told ABC before leaving
on an trip to South Asia that offered a breather from problems
and miscues that have recently plagued him in his second term.

U.S. TROOPS WANT OUT

The same CBS poll showed public approval for Bush’s
handling of the situation in Iraq, once among his strongest
suits, falling to 30 percent from 37 percent in January.

Sixty-two percent of Americans said they thought U.S.
efforts to bring order to Iraq were going badly, up from 54
percent in January, compared with 36 percent who said things
were going well, a drop from 45 percent.

Raising questions about Bush’s vow to keep troops in Iraq
as long as they are needed, a Le Moyne College/Zogby poll
showed 72 percent of U.S troops serving there think the United
States should exit within the next year. Nearly one in four
said the troops should leave immediately.

A strategy often used by the Bush administration against
opponents of the war in Iraq has been to accuse them of being
unfair to troops who want to stay until they get the job done.

But Americans’ opposition to the war has grown as U.S.
casualties have mounted and violence has persisted despite a
costly program to train Iraqi police and soldiers. There have
been 2,295 U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the start of the
war in March 2003.

Before leaving for India and Pakistan, Bush skirted a
reporter’s question of whether the latest Iraqi violence would
affect prospects for beginning a drawdown of the 136,000 U.S.
troops now in Iraq.

“The people of Iraq and their leaders must make a choice,”
Bush said after a White House meeting with Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi. “The choice is a free society, or a
society dictated … by evil people who will kill innocents.”

Administration officials have accused Sunni-led insurgents,
including al Qaeda operatives, of trying to foment civil war in
Iraq. In Washington, a U.S. military intelligence chief called
the situation “very tenuous” but not yet civil war.

Seated with Bush, Berlusconi stood by his plan to withdraw
all of Italy’s 3,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

“This plan has been agreed upon also together with our
allies, and with the Iraqi government,” Berlusconi, one of
Bush’s staunchest allies on Iraq, told reporters.