Bush Says Iraq Is in a `Period of Tension'
WASHINGTON — President Bush said Friday that new sectarian strife had created "a period of tension" in Iraq, as his aides unveiled plans for a series of presidential speeches on what was going right -- and, to a degree, what had gone wrong -- in the conflict.
With U.S. troops facing a continuing insurgency and the threat of civil war in Iraq as the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion approaches, the effort reflects a renewed drive by the White House to explain the policy underlying the war, and the strategy intended to win it, amid deepening public skepticism. The effort follows a similar package of addresses three months ago and a push last summer to win support for the war.
The campaign comes as violence in Iraq has endangered hopes for a U.S. troop reduction this year and as Bush tries to recover from the U.S. ports controversy in which he suffered a rare political defeat on his signature issue of national security.
The president will make three addresses in March about Iraq "to update the American people on our strategy for victory," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. Bush will also discuss lessons learned by U.S. forces and policymakers in Iraq and how to apply them "to fix what is not working."
Speaking to the government affairs conference of the National Newspaper Assn., an organization representing smaller newspapers, Bush acknowledged the new phase in Iraq's turmoil, saying that some were trying to "sow the seeds of sectarian strife."
"They fear the advancement of a democracy," he said. "They blow up shrines in order to cause this Iraqi democracy that is emerging to go backwards, to not emerge
He praised the response of Iraqi forces and said there was "relative calm" in 16 of 18 provinces. Bush presented economic development in Iraq, establishment of reliable Iraqi forces, and the political progress suggested by three elections there as the three legs of the U.S. strategy. .
But last month's bombing of the Golden Mosque, a Shiite shrine in Samarra, brought new paroxysms of violence that officials acknowledged had edged the country closer to a sectarian civil war dividing Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
"No question there was violence and killing," Bush said. But, referring to the quiet that followed the imposition of daytime curfews, he added: "The society took a step back from the abyss. And people took a sober reflection about what a civil war would mean."
