Bush lauds Iraqi reconciliation

MANAMA, Bahrain — President Bush yesterday praised the Iraqi parliament for passing a reconciliation law, an action seen as undercutting Democrats’ criticism of his Iraq policy.

“It’s an important step toward reconciliation,” Mr. Bush said of the law that will allow past members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party to re-enter government posts.

“It’s an important sign that the leaders of that country understand that they must work together to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people,” he said during a meeting with Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.

Mr. Bush met earlier in the day in Kuwait with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, before addressing U.S. forces at Camp Arifjan.

“There is no doubt in my mind when history is written, the final page will say: Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world,” he told the troops.

It was not clear how many former Ba’athists would benefit from the new legislation, called the Accountability and Justice Law, but the parliament’s action was seen as a key step in the reconciliation process.

The party had 2 million to 6 million members before it was outlawed shortly after the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces.

The strict implementation of so-called de-Ba’athification rules meant that many senior bureaucrats who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies were fired after 35 years of Ba’ath Party rule. The order also was blamed for fueling the Sunni-dominated insurgency that took root in the late summer of 2003.

The parliament approved the reconciliation bill by a unanimous show of hands on each of its 30 clauses. The legislation can become law only when also approved by Iraq’s presidential council. The council, made up of Iraq’s president and two vice presidents, is expected to ratify the measure.

Other benchmarks languish, though, including legislation to divvy up the country’s vast oil wealth, constitutional amendments demanded by the Sunni Arabs and a bill spelling out rules for local elections.

But the reconciliation bill’s passage provides a boost to Mr. Bush and his troop “surge” strategy.

The president announced last January that he would increase the U.S. troop presence in Iraq from 130,000 to 160,000 after a brutal year of sectarian violence between Shi’ites and Sunnis.

The purpose of the surge, Mr. Bush said, was to create “breathing space” for Iraqi politicians to forge key agreements among the tribal factions.

The surge netted clear security gains over the past several months, reducing the level of violence dramatically. But Democrats and other skeptics continued to point to the lack of political progress in Iraq as evidence that Mr. Bush needed to start withdrawing troops immediately.

Mr. Bush told reporters yesterday he will let his military commanders decide whether to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

If Gen. Petraeus “doesn’t want to continue the drawdown, that’s fine with me,” the president said.

Gen. Petraeus said he and his staff are beginning to plan for continued withdrawals past July, when troops in Iraq are scheduled to return to the pre-surge level of about 130,000. But the military also is planning for scenarios in which violence stays the same or worsens in the coming months, the general said.

He and Mr. Crocker also briefed reporters on the level of Iran and Syria’s involvement in Iraq. They said there is no indication that Iran has stopped its support of Iraqi insurgents but that Syria has reduced the flow of foreign fighters across its border with Iraq.

Mr. Crocker said that although there has been some decline in attacks on U.S. forces “associated with Iranian munitions or training,” the forces also have seen an increase in the past 10 days in attacks using explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, which have been tied to Tehran.

“From the empirical data, I cannot draw any conclusion that the Iranians have made a fundamental shift in their approach to Iraq, away from supporting extremist militia groups that are attacking our forces and also attacking Iraqis, and toward their stated position, which is support for the Iraqi government,” Mr. Crocker said.

But Gen. Petreaus did say Syria “has, in fact, taken steps to reduce the flow of foreign fighters to [Iraqi] soil.”

Mr. Bush called on Iran to stop its support for anti-U.S. forces in Iraq.

“Iran must stop supporting the militia special groups that attack Iraqi coalition forces, and kidnap and kill Iraqi officials,” he said.

Later yesterday, Mr. Bush flew to this small Persian Gulf island country, host to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. The president is expected to visit the base that houses the 5th Fleet, which had a well-publicized confrontation this month with Iranian speedboats.

The president today will deliver the keynote speech of his six-country, eight-day tour of the Middle East during a stop in Abu Dhabi. He also will travel to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt before returning to the United States on Wednesday.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.