Bush presses leadership to 'do more'

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

MONTEBELLO, Quebec — President Bush voiced disappointment yesterday with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, saying that it needed "to do more" and suggesting Iraqi voters were free to kick their elected officials out of office.

"They will make decisions, just like democracies do," Mr. Bush said when asked about Iraq's continuing turmoil at a summit with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Nevertheless, Mr. Bush brushed off a Democratic senator's call for the ouster of the Iraqi prime minister.

Mr. Bush did not mention the Iraqi prime minister by name, but his remarks reflected growing U.S. frustration at the inability or unwillingness of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government to rise above sectarian strife.

In Baghdad, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, co-author of a highly anticipated progress report to Congress next month, was even more emphatic in his criticism of Iraqi lawmakers.

"Progress on national-level issues has been extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned — to us, to Iraqis, to the Iraqi leadership itself," Mr. Crocker told reporters.

But he added that the Shi'ite prime minister was working "in the shadow of a huge national trauma."

Iraqi lawmakers recently adjourned for a summer recess without addressing key issues such as distribution of oil revenues and setting up local elections.

Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Mr. al-Maliki should be ousted in favor of a less sectarian and more unifying leader. Mr. Levin issued the call after a recent visit to Iraq.

In a speech today to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, Mo., Mr. Bush is expected to argue that the troop buildup is helping bring former Sunni insurgents into the fight against al Qaeda and clearing terrorists out of heavily populated areas.

"Our troops are seeing this progress on the ground, and as they take the initiative from the enemy, they have a question: Will their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just as they are gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq?" Mr. Bush's prepared remarks said.

Though security has improved and the number of attacks has been reduced in neighborhoods covered by the six-month offensive of 30,000 additional U.S. troops, the violence has become especially grotesque.

Yesterday was no exception.

Shi'ite militia suspects stormed a Sunni Arab home south of Baghdad and fatally shot seven family members, including a baby being bounced on her mother's shoulder.

The attack killed Khayrallah Salman, 70, who ran a small grocery in Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad, along with six relatives, including the 6-month-old girl, a 12-year-old girl and two women. A son and daughter-in-law were wounded, Babil province police Capt. Muthanna Khalid told the Associated Press.

A witness said the baby's mother, who survived, was bouncing the child on her shoulder about 8:30 a.m. when the gunmen broke into the house and opened fire. The witness would not allow use of her name, fearing retribution.

Other witnesses and neighbors said Shi'ite Mahdi Army militiamen were responsible for the killings of the family, members of the Sunni al-Janabi tribe. Police did not give a motive, and charges against the militia could not be independently confirmed.

The Mahdi Army, which is nominally loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has splintered in recent months as the firebrand cleric has taken refuge in Iran. Some factions are accused of pursuing a sectarian campaign to rid Baghdad and surrounding areas of Sunnis.

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