United States President George Bush tried on Monday night to persuade an increasingly sceptical American public to rekindle its faith in his project for Iraq, promising he had a clear strategy for a handover of power.
The speech was delivered at a time when Bush is facing approval ratings in the dangerous 40% range — the lowest of his presidency — and when 64% of the public believe that he has no clear plan for bringing the situation in Iraq to a successful resolution.
Bush tried to shake off those doubts on Monday, telling an audience at the army war college in Pennsylvania: ”History is moving, and it will tend toward hope or tend toward tragedy. We will persevere and defeat this enemy and hold this hard-won ground for the realm of liberty.”
Monday’s address coincided with a proposal by Britain and America for a new United Nations resolution authorising the June 30 handover of power in Iraq and a US-led stabilisation force for Iraq.
The US-British resolution calls for a caretaker administration — unelected and appointed by the UN — which will take office by June 30 and govern until elections in approximately six months.
”The interim government of Iraq will assume the responsibility and authority for governing a sovereign Iraq,” it says.
The resolution also authorises a US-led military force to stay in Iraq for at least a year. There is no clear timetable for the troops to leave.
Bush lowered expectations by acknowledging that the coming five weeks will see a new eruption in violence, and that he may need to send more troops to Iraq.
”Iraq now faces a critical moment. As the Iraqi people move closer to governing themselves, the terrorists are likely to become more active and more brutal,” he said.
He appeared determined to regain control of the domestic political terrain in the run-up to next November’s election.
Bush reached out to try to reverse the steady erosion of public support for the war and occupation of Iraq, pledging to demolish the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, where naked and humiliated Iraqis were photographed by American army guards.
He also set out what he called a five-point plan for a handover in Iraq, beginning with the transfer of power to an unelected Iraqi government on June 30, establishment of a US-led protection force, campaign for broader international support, and reconstruction including elections to be held in six months.
”Completing the five steps to Iraqi elected self-government will not be easy,” Bush said. ”There is likely to be violence before the transfer of sovereignty and after the transfer of sovereignty.”
Although Bush was more expansive on his vision for Iraq than he has been in previous appearances, the substance of his plan was still woefully thin, and was seen largely as a concerted effort by Bush to stop the erosion in support for his administration.
The Democratic challenger, John Kerry, has called on the White House to ”turn words into action”. However, Monday’s night’s address is merely the first stage of what promises to be a dogged campaign by Bush to turn around public opinion on the Iraq war.
White House aides have said he plans five more such speeches, one each week in the five weeks remaining until the June 30 handover date.
With time running out on Iraq — and Bush just five months away from his own electoral test — the consequences of his decision to go to war are becoming even more stark.
With the death toll among US forces in Iraq now approaching 800, and the Abu Ghraib scandal producing almost daily revelations of fresh abuse, Bush is facing a steady erosion of support.
More alarming for Bush, he is losing support among his fellow Republicans. A poll posted on the Washington Post website on Monday night attributed virtually all of his seven point decline in his approval rating to disaffected Republicans.
Bush also has the burden of defending his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, for a second time since the first pictures of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison surfaced three weeks ago.
In a blistering appearance on CBS television’s 60 minutes on Sunday, General Anthony Zinni, a former commander of US forces in the Middle East, lashed out at Rumsfeld for bungling the war, and said he should be held accountable.
”Somebody screwed up. And at this level and at this stage, it should be evident to everybody that they’ve screwed up,” Zinni said.
Zinni, who served Bush as an envoy to Israel and the Palestinians, broke ranks with the administration before the war on Iraq. Like other military men, he has been severe in his criticism of Rumsfeld’s post-war planning, which called for a far smaller military force than the generals had wanted.
In his new book, Battle Ready, Zinni says the Pentagon’s civilian leadership betrayed ”at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption” in the run-up to the war. – Guardian Unlimited Â