President George Bush performed a triumphal and dramatic gesture to mark victory in the Iraq war, co-piloting a navy jet on to an aircraft carrier to underline his role as America’s commander-in-chief, and steel the nation for more combat in the years ahead.
In a nationally televised address from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Pacific ocean, the president celebrated America’s military prowess, but warned that although major combat operations had finished in Iraq, there was still ”difficult work” to do there.
The address stopped short of declaring the war over, vowing: ”Our coalition will stay until our work is done,” according to advance excerpts from of the speech, delivered 100 miles off San Diego.
The remaining tasks included the hunt for Saddam Hussein, his regime, and the chemical and biological weapons that were the original justification for the war, while rebuilding the Iraqi economy.
The US continued to take casualties from an uneasy occupation yesterday. Seven soldiers were slightly wounded when Iraqis taking revenge for the death of 16 civilians in two incidents in Falluja this week threw two grenades into a former police compound in the town, west of Baghdad. US troops patrolling in Baghdad also came under fire.
On the deck of the Lincoln, Bush was expected to repeat his claim that the Saddam regime was ”an ally of al-Qaeda” declaring that ”no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime because that regime is no more”.
But he issued a warning that the broader ”war on terror” would continue, from Pakistan to the Philippines to the horn of Africa.
Before the speech, the president made a televised entrance as dramatic as any in White House history. He sat in the co-pilot’s seat in a navy submarine-hunting and refuelling jet, a four-seater Viking S-3B, as it was brought to a screeching halt by a cable across the Lincoln’s deck. Bush, a former pilot in the Texas air national guard, let it be known he had spent time at the warplane’s controls.
He had wanted to land in a two-seater F-18 Hornet combat jet, of the kind which ran continual bombing sorties over Iraq. But the secret service vetoed the suggestion, insisting a bodyguard should be on board with the president. A secret service agent and a reserve pilot sat in the Viking’s back seats.
Wearing olive-green pilot’s overalls, Bush clearly revelled in rubbing shoulders with the Lincoln’s crew, spending six hours on deck and touring the vast carrier before delivering his primetime speech.
By sidestepping a formal declaration of an end to hostilities, the US retains room for manoeuvre under international law to pursue the hunt for Iraq’s former rulers and to hold on to prisoners of war. whom the Pentagon wants to continue interrogating.
US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, meeting Afghan president Hamid Karzai in Kabul, said ”major combat activity” in Afghanistan had ended too.
The declaration, in combination with Bush’s, plainly sought to drive home the idea of a lull in US military activities overseas. That will be politically important to the president as he begins to gear up for next year’s election and seeks to convince the country of wisdom of his tax cuts.
Captain Frank Rosenblat, of the 82nd Airborne Division, said none of yesterday’s in juries from the Falluja grenade attack was life-threatening. The army had solid intelligence that members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party were hiding in demonstrations in Falluja to fire on US forces.
”The people in the city want to get rid of this problem. We have people in the city coming up to tell us who the bad actors are. In every instance, our soldiers have shown discipline and restraint.”
He added that in future teargas and other riot-control measures might be used to put down violent demonstrations.
The US and British forces say that handing responsibility for running the country to Iraqis was going faster than expected. The interim administration of the office of reconstruction and humanitarian aid hopes to wind up its work next month.
US forces have given no indication when they may leave and whether they may establish permanent bases. But they seem to be lowering their profile. The number of checkpoints is to be reduced and there appear to be fewer patrols.
Given the number of weapons held by former Iraqi soldiers and civilians, and the rifles being sold openly in the centre of Baghdad for $75 or less, there have been few attacks on US troops.
In Mosul, 153 arms caches have been found, one containing 1.2 million mortar rounds and another 65 000 artillery shells. About 150 arms and ammunition sites have been found in Baghdad.
The US ground commander, Lieutenant-General David McKiernan, in a statement broadcast in Arabic by the forces’ Information Radio, called on Iraqis to help restore security. He said: ”I call for putting an end to all acts of sabotage and criminal acts, including plundering, looting and attacking coalition forces. I also expect the support and back-up of Iraqis to restore stability in their country.
Lance Corporal James McCue, 27, of 7 Air Assault Battalion, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, died after an explosion near Basra on Thursday, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday. He came from Paisley. – Guardian Unlimited Â