Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Iraq

Bush defends war policy, says Iraq economy better

By wire services
Published December 8, 2005

WASHINGTON - Defending his war policy, President Bush said Wednesday that Iraq is making quiet, steady progress in repairing its shattered economy, though reconstruction "has not always gone as well as we had hoped" because of unrelenting violence.

"Rebuilding a nation devastated by a dictator is a large undertaking," the president said. "It's even harder when terrorists are trying to blow up that which the Iraqis are trying to build."

Bush spoke before the Council on Foreign Relations in the second of four addresses to answer criticism about America's presence in Iraq, where the U.S. death toll has eclipsed 2,100.

While not admitting errors, Bush spoke about how the U.S. "adjusted our approach" in helping rebuild Iraqi cities. Bush said the U.S. has helped Iraqis conduct nearly 3,000 renovation projects at schools, train more than 30,000 teachers, distribute more than 8-million textbooks, rebuild irrigation infrastructure to help more than 400,000 rural Iraqis and improve drinking water for more than 3-million people.

Bush cited Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, and Mosul in northern Iraq - the sites of some of the bloodiest battles of the war - as two cities where headway is being made. In focusing on progress in the two cities, however, Bush did not dwell on violence-scarred cities such as Baghdad, the capital, or western expanses that have been a gateway for foreign militants.

A majority of Americans now say the war was a mistake, and critics of the administration's reconstruction strategy say not enough has been done in the nearly three years since the invasion to reduce unemployment, step up oil production and keep the lights on.

Democrats were drawing up their rebuttals before the president was finished speaking. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, told reporters on Capitol Hill that "more of the same in Iraq" was a recipe for failure.

Sen. Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, the Senate minority leader, said Bush had "cherry-picked isolated examples" of reconstruction that did not portray life as most Iraqis live it.

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein followed through Wednesday on his threat to boycott his trial, and the court adjourned until Dec. 21 - six days after the parliamentary elections, which officials fear may coincide with a spike in insurgent violence.

Court official Raid Juhi insisted that Hussein did not boycott the hearing but that the court "decided he should be removed" after the closed-door consultations. Juhi said Hussein would be in court Dec. 21. However, a statement released in Amman, Jordan, by Hussein's legal team said the former president stayed away to protest alleged mistreatment by an "illegal" court.

KIDNAPPERS EXTEND DEADLINE: Kidnappers in Iraq extended a deadline Wednesday for the threatened killing of four captive peace activists and posted a video of two of the hostages wearing robes and shackled with chains. The original deadline set by the group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness was Thursday. Al-Jazeera said it was extended until Saturday.

GUARD'S SON KIDNAPPED: Gunmen kidnapped the 8-year-old son of a bodyguard for a judge in the trial of Hussein and seven others, the father said Wednesday. Karim Salam was taken Tuesday as he played in front of his parent's house in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Kamsarah, said Salam Hirmiz Gorgis, who works for one of five judges in the trial.

[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:51:07]