WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- "We must get it right," Stephen Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, speaking on Iraq told a group of ambassadors, journalists and other Washington insiders gathered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Tuesday.
Words of wisdom that might be about two years too late. So far, there has not been very much that has gone right in Iraq since the U.S. military entered Baghdad in April 2003, toppling Saddam Hussein's statue along with his regime.
The administration will claim that since the fall of Saddam, the Iraqis have had three elections, with each one unfolding under better circumstances and with larger participation of Iraqi Sunnis.
"We are winning that ideological struggle," said Hadley.
"We are winning the war in Iraq," said Bush.
Yet the situation on the ground is far from being as rosy as Bush and his national security adviser would like to make it appear. While Iraqis did vote in larger numbers than ever, they voted according to ethnic divisions. Early returns from last week's voting indicated that divisions among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds is greater than ever.
Advisers to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told United Press International they believed Iraq was on the way to being partitioned.
The democratic, secular Iraq that would "serve as a beacon of freedom in the Middle East," as repeated by both Bush and Hadley, is instead turning out to be more along the lines where the religious fundamentalists have the upper hand.
The big victors in Iraq's elections are the Shiite coalition who get their support form Iran and the Sunni factions who support the anti-American insurgency. Iyad Alawi, the former prime minister who enjoyed the backing of the United States, won a meager 14 percent.
Patrick Cockburn of the London Independent newspaper wrote, "The election marks the final shipwreck of American and British hopes of establishing a pro-Western secular democracy in a united Iraq." Cockburn quotes Ghassan Attiyah, an Iraqi commentator, as saying: "In 2-1/2 years Bush has succeeded in creating two new Talibans in Iraq."
This week alone, Bush appeared twice in two days on national television, reassuring the American people the benefits of success in Iraq will make America safer, yet warning that more sacrifices need to be made as more dangers lie ahead.
"I see a global terrorist movement," said the president, "who want to wage a perpetual war against America."
And if the president did admit for the first time since American troops marched into Baghdad and toppled Saddam's statue along with his regime that mistakes were made, he still believes "It was right to go to war."
Bush: "Much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. This war, like other wars, has been difficult. The work in Iraq has been difficult, more difficult than we expected."
"We must get it right," Hadley said Tuesday.
But the president and his adviser now have mapped out a five-point plan: "Strategy for Victory in Iraq."
-- Step up the training of Iraq forces so that newly formed Iraqi units can replace American troops.
-- Support the Sunni Muslims' entry and their participation in government.
-- Support Iraq in amending its constitution.
-- Expand support for Iraq. Encourage international engagement in Iraq.
-- Refocus U.S. support to provide reconstruction efforts.
"Our work is not done," admitted Bush. But, said the president, "We have a clear objective in view: a democratic Iraq that can defend itself."
That is still far from being the case. Despite heavier Sunni turnout for the third round of elections since the fall of Saddam, the insurgency did not let up their attacks on American forces. And if American forces suffered fewer deaths in the last week, the number of wounded has risen.
Total American personnel killed in Iraq since the start of hostilities now stand at 2,158, according to official figures issued by the Department of Defense. And the number of injured rose considerably during the week of the elections. According to the Pentagon, the number of U.S. troops wounded in action from the beginning of hostilities on March 19, 2003, through Dec. 19, was 16,061.
American soldiers were wounded in action at the rate of about 15 per day during election week.
The recent elections hailed by Bush as a landmark victory only strengthens the opponents of the democracy, which should have flowered in Iraq.
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