Bush tries to counter fears of Iraq civil war

By Tabassum Zakaria

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – President George W. Bush pledged on
Monday the United States will not abandon Iraq as a major
Shi’ite religious ritual unfolded amid heavy security in the
sacred city of Kerbala three years to the day after the
U.S.-led invasion.

In a series of speeches, Bush is trying to convince a
skeptical American public that he has a winning strategy for
Iraq to counter fears that a relentless cycle of sectarian
violence is spiraling into civil war.

Speaking in Cleveland, Bush gave a somber assessment of the
war, saying bluntly that Iraq remains an uphill battle.

“In the face of continued reports about killings and
reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their
confidence shaken,” Bush said. “They wonder what I see that
they don’t.”

He insisted progress is being made, citing the northern
Iraqi town of Tal Afar as an example. U.S. and Iraqi forces
have freed the town from the grip of al Qaeda and insurgents,
he said, and it is now “a free city that gives reason for hope
for a free Iraq.”

American and Iraqi forces said Tal Afar was used as a
conduit for smuggling in equipment and foreign fighters from
Syria on the way to cities across central Iraq.

In Kerbala, nearly 10,000 troops and police guarded
hundreds of thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims gathered for Arbain,
an annual ritual banned under Saddam Hussein which Sunni Arab
suicide bombers have targeted in the past.

A sea of black-clad pilgrims flailing themselves and
carrying traditional black and green flags filled the city,
mourning the dead in a 7th-century battle that sealed a
historic schism in Islam between Sunnis and Shi’ites.

POWER VACUUM

Despite urgent calls from Washington and other capitals for
Shi’ite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders to form a national
unity government and avoid a dangerous power vacuum, senior
leaders will not meet for the rest of the week.

They remain deadlocked over who will lead the first
full-term postwar Iraqi government three months after
democratic polls meant to fulfill a main goal of the invasion.

Instead of celebrating the success of their Iraq venture,
Washington and its allies are on the defensive.

In London, Defense Minister John Reid said, “The situation
in Iraq is serious but it is not terminal. … There is
certainly nothing inevitable about a slide toward civil war.”

“It is now crucial that they (political and religious
leaders) respond to the terrorists to divide them by uniting,
in the speedy formation of a strong, representative government
of national unity,” he said.

A Sunni Arab insurgency against the interim government also
threatens to expand into bloody sectarian conflict.

Hundreds of people have been killed since the bombing of a
major Shi’ite mosque on February 22. Iraqi police in Baghdad
reported 12 new bodies on Monday, while nineteen others were
killed in a spate of bomb blasts and shootings across Iraq.

Iraqis interviewed by Reuters spoke gloomily of the future
and questioned whether a unity government would be able to
arrest the growing rift between Shi’ites and Sunnis.

“We expected positive things after 35 years of
dictatorship, but things moved in the opposite direction.
Killings and destruction have prevailed,” said Basra merchant
Jassim Hamoud, as he joined pilgrims in Kerbala.

U.S. SUPPORT EVAPORATING

In an incident illustrative of the chaos gripping Iraq,
striking doctors shut down one of Baghdad’s busiest hospitals,
demanding protection from police violence.

Bush is struggling with public approval ratings that have
dropped to all-time lows of his presidency as the public
becomes increasingly gloomy about U.S. involvement in Iraq,
where more than 2,300 American troops have died.

A recent Newsweek magazine poll showed 65 percent of
Americans were dissatisfied with Bush’s handling of the war.

“We got rid of a brutal dictator. And that’s good. But we
may be on the verge of trading him for chaos and a new terror
haven in the Middle East. That’s a bad bargain for America’s
security,” said Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the top Democrat
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He called on Bush to be more involved in getting other
world leaders to put pressure on the Iraqi sects to unite.

Talks expected this week between Iran and the United States
on stabilizing Iraq have raised hopes the logjam in the Iraqi
government talks could be broken.

Iraqi leaders have agreed to form a national security
council representing all political blocs in parliament, though
its powers are not clear. The agreement creates the prospect of
a shadow government in overall control of both security and the
economy.

(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin in Baghdad, David
Clarke in London, the Tehran bureau)