Rice tells Iraqis about Americans’ concerns
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, February 17, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iraqi government leaders Saturday that the contentious debate in Washington over President Bush’s war strategy reflects U.S. doubts that democracy will prevail over violence.
“Some of the debate in Washington is in fact indicative of the concerns that some of the American people have … if the Iraqi government doesn’t do what it has said it will do,” Rice said she told leaders from all of Iraq’s factions.
Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Friday.
Although Rice used her visit to publicly praise the Iraqi government’s role in a new security crackdown in Baghdad, an Iraqi official said she was more critical in private.
Rice told Iraqi leaders that the Baghdad security operation needs to “rise above sectarianism” and noted that no U.S. or Iraqi forces have yet moved into the capital’s major Shiite militia stronghold, the Iraqi official said.
The official said Rice told Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the initial stage of the crackdown, which began Wednesday, appeared to focus on Sunni areas and had left Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia, nearly untouched.
He said Rice stopped short of accusing the Iraqis of displaying pro-Shiite bias in the operation and said it appeared that the crackdown was going well.
“The United States is investing a great deal, most especially the lives of our men and women in uniform, and the American people want to see results and aren’t prepared to wait forever to see those results,” Rice said later.
“Some do not think that this was the right war to fight, and others think that we in the administration haven’t fought this war quite right,” but still support U.S. forces and others in harm’s way.
“I keep hearing and reading the American people don’t want to fight this war anymore. I don’t think that’s right. The American people want to know that we can succeed,” Rice said.
