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Gates warns Iraq on infighting

"The clock is ticking," he says, and urges passage of legislation to promote reconciliation.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 20, 2007

FALLUJAH, Iraq - On his third visit to Iraq since becoming defense secretary in December, Robert Gates carried an unmistakable message intended to stir the fractious Iraqi government to act against sectarian strife.

"The clock is ticking," Gates said Thursday, referring to the limits on U.S. patience with the course of the war.

Gates said he understands how difficult it is for the Iraqis to achieve political reconciliation at a time when sectarian violence is rampant and Baghdad is being rocked by devastating attacks like Wednesday's multiple bombings that killed 230 people and last week's suicide bombing in the Parliament building.

"I know it's difficult, and clearly the attack on the council of representatives has made people nervous, but I think that it's very important that they bend every effort to getting this legislation done as quickly as possible," he said, referring to proposed legislation to spur reconciliation of the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Gates' words reflected the Bush administration's frustration and the political tumult in Washington, where President Bush and Congress are deadlocked over setting a date to begin withdrawing U.S. combat troops.

The defense secretary stressed again, however, that the debate has been helpful in letting the Iraqis know that American patience with the war is ebbing. Democrats have seized on those remarks to bolster their arguments that there must be a deadline for the Pentagon to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq.

The last time a U.S. defense secretary had visited Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, was in December 2005, when Donald Rumsfeld stopped here to announce a plan to begin reducing U.S. troops.

Small reductions were made, but shortly afterward troop levels began climbing again. In February 2006 the spectacular bombing of a mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad, set off a wave of sectarian retribution and a surge of civilian deaths that scuttled U.S. plans to pull out more troops.

[Last modified April 20, 2007, 01:08:33]