Bush Says 'War Not Over' On Farewell Iraq Visit
"We are leaving the next (U.S.) president with a stable foundation," Bush said on his fourth visit to Iraq since he ordered the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.
"There is still more work to be done," Bush said as he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki signed a security pact setting out new guidelines for U.S. troops in Iraq.
"The war is not over, but with the conclusion of these agreements... it is decisively on its way to being won," the president said.
Bush's trip comes about five weeks before he hands over the delicate task of overseeing the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to his successor Barack Obama, who has pledged to turn the page on the deeply unpopular war.
"I'm so grateful that I've had a chance to come back to Iraq before my presidency ends," he said at a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who stressed it was thanks to Bush that he was in office.
From Talabani's office, Bush was driven in a motorcade for several minutes around Baghdad streets, the first time in four visits he has gone somewhere in Iraq other than a military base or the Green Zone.
Pool reports said the unmarked motorcade passed through darkened streets that appeared heavily guarded, before arriving at Maliki's residence.
As the two leaders shook hands in Maliki's private office, an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the U.S. president, shouting: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog." Bush was not struck.
Soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam's statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue's face with their soles.
Bush has staunchly defended the invasion that toppled Saddam but triggered years of deadly insurgency and sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,200 American troops.
Bush's visit came hot on the heels of a trip on Saturday by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said that the U.S. mission was in its "endgame."
The signing ceremony by Bush and Maliki marks the adoption of the Status of Forces Agreement approved by Iraq's parliament in November after months of intense political wrangling.
The pact will govern the presence of 146,000 U.S. troops stationed in more than 400 bases when their UN mandate expires at the end of the year, giving the Iraqi government veto power over virtually all of their operations.
Gates, who President-elect Obama has picked to stay on at the Pentagon when he moves into the White House, told U.S. troops on Saturday: "We are in the process of the drawdown."
"We are, I believe, in terms of the American commitment, in the endgame here in Iraq."
The pact envisages U.S. combat troops leaving Iraq by the end of 2011 and departing from all urban areas by June 30 next year.
But the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, who met with Gates, said on Saturday that troops will stay in Iraqi cities in a support and training role after June.
As part of political bargaining leading up to the vote, the Baghdad government agreed to demands by Sunni parties to hold a referendum on the accord no later than July 30.
The Shiite radical movement of Moqtada Sadr, which strongly opposed the security deal, said Odierno's remarks on the support troops showed that Washington had no intention of sticking by any of the deadlines.
"As we predicted, the comments fly in the face of the security agreement," the head of the movement's political bureau, Liwaa Sumeissim, told AFP just a few hours before Bush's arrival.
Obama, who takes over the White House on January 20, has said he favors "a responsible withdrawal from Iraq" within 16 months of taking office.
While the security situation in Baghdad and other parts of the country has significantly improved, violence remains a major factor, with almost daily bomb attacks.
Problems also continue to dog the massive economic reconstruction program undertaken since the invasion.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that an unpublished U.S. government report had found that U.S.-led efforts to rebuild Iraq were crippled by bureaucratic turf wars, violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society, resulting in a $100 billion failure.
By mid-2008, the document said, $117 billion had been spent on the reconstruction of Iraq, including about $50 billion in U.S. taxpayer money, the newspaper reported.
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Publié le 14 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones
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