WASHINGTON, June 25: A day after rejecting calls for a timetable for pulling US troops out of Iraq, President George Bush assured his nation on Saturday that he had a strategy for a triumphant withdrawal from the Arab country.
But in a response to Mr Bush’s weekly radio address, a representative of the opposition Democratic Party said he believes the president was not giving an “honest explanation” of the situation in Iraq which is turning into a quagmire for US troops.
Mr Bush said he had a two-track plan that involved training Iraqis to handle more of their own security, and helping the country develop a stable democracy.
“Our military strategy is clear: We will train Iraqi security forces so they can defend their freedom and protect their people, and then our troops will return home with the honour they have earned,” he said.
Mr Bush said that at a White House meeting on Friday Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafri had assured him that the Iraqi government would meet the mid August deadline for drafting a new constitution for the country.
“Then the constitution will be submitted to the Iraqi people for approval, and new elections will be held to choose a fully constitutional government,” he added.
But Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter who delivered a radio address on behalf of Democrats, rejected Mr Bush’s assertion that he would be able to withdraw US troops from Iraq as planned.
“Our nation ... deserves an honest explanation for how we ended up in Iraq. And we deserve a realistic definition of success for a war that increasingly threatens to become a quagmire,” he said. “Unfortunately, we are getting neither from the Bush administration.”
Mr Brzezinski urged Mr Bush to explain “clearly and credibly what must be achieved before our troops can come home. And then he should lay out what he needs in order to achieve that goal.”
As the death toll for US troops has climbed above 1,700, polls are showing waning American support for the conflict. Even some members of Mr Bush’s Republican Party have begun to criticize his Iraq policy, accusing him of failing to level with the public.
In his radio address Mr Bush acknowledged the grim images Americans have been seeing on their television screens and warned that US troops would face “more tough fighting.”
“Our nation’s mission in Iraq is difficult, and we can expect more tough fighting in the weeks and months ahead,” he said. “Yet I am confident in the outcome. ... A democratic Iraq will be a great triumph in the history of liberty.”
