US won’t run from Iraq: Bush

WASHINGTON—President George W. Bush vowed on Saturday that the United States “will not run” from Iraq as it did from Vietnam, as he welcomed voting on a new Iraqi constitution and called it step forward for democracy. Speaking near the close of voting on a charter aimed at reshaping Iraq’s political structure after Saddam Hussein, Bush also praised the draft charter, which is strongly supported by ethnic Shi’ites and Kurds but opposed by many Sunni Arabs.
“This constitution is the result of months of debate and compromise by representatives of Iraq’s diverse ethnic and religious communities,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “These leaders came together to produce a document that protects fundamental freedoms and lays the foundation for a lasting democracy,” he added. Bush said the vote itself was “a critical step forward in Iraq’s march toward democracy”.
The Iraqi referendum comes as opinion polls in the United States show an erosion of support for the war and for Bush’s leadership. Antiwar sentiment has risen amid unabated violence and a US military death toll nearing 2,000. Results of the Iraqi referendum are not expected to be known until Sunday at the earliest. Voting was relatively calm, marked by less violence than the widespread attacks Sunni insurgents had threatened.
Approval of the document would pave the way for a vote on a new government on December 15 and could affect whether the United States is able to reduce its 156,000 troop presence in Iraq. Opinion polls in Iraq suggest the constitution will be ratified but some analysts fear the document might widen ethnic rifts rather than heal them. Bush quoted heavily in his address from a letter that US officials say is from al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri to the group’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. US officials said the July 9 letter was obtained during operations in Iraq but the al Qaeda’s wing in Iraq has dismissed it as a fake.
The letter urges Zarqawi to prepare for an Islamic government takeover of Iraq when US forces leave. It also warns him against the unpopular killing of civilians in Iraq, saying that it could undermine public support for an Islamic state. Bush said in his radio address that the letter shows that the insurgency in Iraq is aimed at “a larger goal of imposing Islamic radicalism across the broader Middle East”. “This letter shows that al Qaeda intends to make Iraq a terrorist haven and a staging ground for attacks against other nations, including the United States,” Bush said, underscoring a theme he has emphasized in recent weeks tying the Iraq war to the risk of a terror threat on US soil.—Agencies