Fresh from his surprise visit to Baghdad and buoyed by rising poll numbers, an energized President Bush vowed on Wednesday to build on recent momentum for progress in Iraq.
In a Rose Garden news conference that lasted nearly an hour, Bush regaled reporters with stories of his dramatic arrival Tuesday in Baghdad, where he pledged to redouble U.S. support of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki?s fledgling unity government.
“By helping this new government succeed, we?ll be closer to completing our mission,” Bush said. “We?ll seize this moment of opportunity to help the prime minister.
“We?ll defeat our common enemies. We?ll help build a lasting democracy in the heart of the Middle East. And that will make Americans and Iraqis and the world more secure.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised the president?s daring visit, but criticized the administration?s Iraq policy.
“I?m glad the president went to Iraq ? it?s good for our troops and the new Iraqi government,” he said. “But in the fourth year of this war, the American people are still waiting for the president to lay out a strategy that will stabilize Iraq, redeploy our troops, and refocus on threats that have been largely ignored by this administration.”
Although Bush announced no changes in U.S. troop levels in Iraq, he unveiled plans to send various Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials to the war-torn country in an effort to help Iraqis with such problems as energy, electricity and the judiciary.
Bush also praised U.S. troops for killing terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last week and embarking on an aggressive new offensive against terrorist strongholds since then.
“Iraqi and coalition forces are still on the offense,” he said. “They launched a series of raids on terrorist targets across Iraq.
“We?ve got new intelligence from those raids, which will enable us to continue to keep the pressure on the foreigners and local Iraqis that are killing innocent lives,” he said. “The terrorists are vulnerable, and we will strike their network and disrupt their operations and continue to bring their leaders to justice.”
Bush also said that Iraqi forces on Wednesday launched Operation Together Forward, an ambitious offensive to restore order to Baghdad.
“It will be carried by some 26,000 Iraqi soldiers, some 23,000 Iraqi police, backed up by over 7,200 coalition forces,” he said.
Bush also backed away from recent remarks that Zarqawi?s death signaled a turning of the tide in Iraq.
“I hope there?s not an expectation from people that, all of a sudden, there?s going to be zero violence,” he said. “It?s just not going to be the case.”
