WASHINGTON — Seeking to shore up Americans' sinking support for the war, President Bush on Wednesday presented a picture of Iraq climbing back from economic ruin with U.S. help, and he argued that such progress was one of the keys to building democracy and political stability there.
In the second of four speeches before Iraq's elections, scheduled for a week from today, to choose a permanent government, Bush said the United States was helping Iraq to build a free-market economy and rebuild its roads, electrical systems, schools and other public buildings.
The infrastructure was largely built shortly before and during Saddam Hussein's regime, and it was damaged when anti-Hussein U.N. sanctions blocked maintenance and repair. Much of what didn't collapse from age during the regime's three decades was destroyed during the U.S. invasion nearly 33 months ago and the guerrilla war that followed.
"We're helping the Iraqis rebuild their infrastructure and reform their economy and build the prosperity that will give all Iraqis a stake in a free and peaceful Iraq," Bush said.
Bush's address to the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to promote understanding of foreign policy and the United States' role in the world, was intended to convince Americans that the war in Iraq was making more progress than news accounts suggested and that it would ultimately succeed. At the same time, he acknowledged that serious economic and security shortfalls remained, saying: "Reconstruction has not gone as well as we had hoped."
Bush presented the efforts to rebuild Iraq politically and economically as the next important steps, along with the campaign to provide security. U.S. deaths in Iraq have passed 2,100. Attacks are expected to increase before the elections.
"We have learned that winning the battle for Iraqi cities is only the first step," he said. "We also have to win the 'battle after the battle' -- by helping Iraqis consolidate their gains and keep the terrorists from returning."
The speech drew criticism almost as soon as the president finished speaking to the foreign relations group at a Washington hotel.
Disputing Bush's claims of progress, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) cited recent government reports and his sources in the military -- including front-line troops and generals, he said -- to question the president's portrait of progress in Iraq.
