January 14, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 23, 1427

WASHINGTON, Jan 13: US President George W. Bush on Saturday warned opposition Democrats against cutting funds for the Iraq war, and challenged those who oppose his new plan to put an alternative on the table.

“Those who refuse to give this plan a chance to work have an obligation to offer an alternative that has a better chance for success. To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible,” he said in his weekly radio address.

Mr Bush also downplayed hostility to his blueprint among Democrats who now control the US Congress and his Republican allies, as some opponents of the US presence in Iraq have threatened to try to withhold spending.

He called his new plan “an important mission that will in large part determine the outcome in Iraq” and warned that “our brave troops should not have to wonder if their leaders in Washington will give them what they need.” ”Whatever our differences on strategy and tactics, we all have a duty to ensure that our troops have what they need to succeed,” said Mr Bush.

Some of Bush's aides have fielded hostile questions and charges that the White House strategy is a blunder on the order of escalating US involvement in Vietnam.

“We recognise that many members of Congress are sceptical. Some say our approach is really just more troops for the same strategy. In fact, we have a new strategy with a new mission: helping secure the population, especially in Baghdad. Our plan puts Iraqis in the lead,” said the president.

“Only the Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people.

Their leaders understand this, and they are stepping forward to do it. But they need our help, and it is in our interests to provide that help,” he said.

Bush said that his new strategy fixed flaws that doomed previous efforts to pacify Baghdad by deploying some 21,500 US troops and giving them a freer hand to quell sectarian violence.—AFP