BAGHDAD — President Bush and his top envoy in Baghdad offered tepid endorsements of Iraq's prime minister Tuesday, in comments suggesting a new distancing from the beleaguered Shiite Muslim political leader.
Bush, speaking at a summit meeting in Canada, said Nouri Maliki's future was in the hands of the Iraqi people.
"Clearly, the Iraqi government has got to do more through its parliament to help heal the wounds of years of having -- having lived years under a tyrant," Bush said at a news conference in the Quebec resort of Montebello as he concluded two days of meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
"People at the grass roots are sick and tired of the violence, sick and tired of the radicalism. They want a better life, and they're beginning to reject the extremists. . . ," Bush said, adding in a direct warning to Maliki, "The fundamental question is: Will the government respond to the demands of the people?"
If it does not, he said, Iraqis "will replace the government."
In Baghdad, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was downbeat in his assessment of Maliki's ability to end sectarian warfare between the Shiites and Sunni Arabs. He called progress toward national reconciliation "extremely disappointing" and said Maliki and other members of his government needed to reach compromises to help quell the bloodshed.
"We do expect results, as do the Iraqi people, and our support is not a blank check," Crocker told journalists.
The comments were markedly harsher than past official U.S. government assessments of Maliki, whose leadership is expected to figure prominently in a progress report that Crocker must deliver to Congress by Sept. 15. The envoy will be joined by the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, who has overseen a military escalation aimed at tamping down violence to help enable Maliki's government to focus on political issues.
The Bush administration is facing growing pressure from Congress to demonstrate political as well as military progress in Iraq. Maliki's future has drawn increasing attention with the return of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, from a visit to Iraq, and his determination that it was time for Maliki to step down or be replaced.
Although it said that "there is some progress being made" in the military sphere, Bush's assessment of Iraq's convoluted and bitter political life was notable for its downbeat tenor.
