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'Bush should apologise to US'
13/10/2003 08:15 - (SA)
Washington - US President George W Bush came under renewed fire on Sunday from lawmakers who demanded a clearer plan for securing Iraq and winning international support for rebuilding the country, hours after a car bombing in the heart of Baghdad.
The criticism comes amid a White House media blitz defending its Iraq policy, with Bush and top officials in his administration insisting that the war was key to winning the "war on terrorism" declared after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Opinion polls show Bush's support ebbing and worries about the occupation rising, turning Iraq into a political challenge for the president as he gears up for his 2004 re-election bid.
Bush's potential Democratic opponents, encouraged by his flagging popularity, have rushed to criticise his handling of Iraq.
"He shouldn't be complaining," Senator John Kerry, a Democrat hoping to win his party's nomination for president, said on television.
"He ought to be apologising to the people of this country, because what they've done now is launch a (public-relations) campaign instead of a real policy."
Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey, told CNN the car bombing was "a continuation of the violence that we've seen ever since the combat was supposed to be over.
"The other day we lost three American soldiers. Try to tell those families that we're making progress there. They're bewildered by what they see happening. And now, they wonder whether or not we're going to take money from American needs and put it into Iraq when they're sitting on $200bn worth of liquid gold."
At least six people were killed in a car bombing outside a Baghdad hotel housing US security personnel and members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the US military said.
The Baghdad Hotel is believed to serve as headquarters for the US Central Intelligence Agency in Baghdad. A US officer at the scene confirmed that US security personnel and contractors live in the building, as well as members of the US-backed council.
The blast came on the heels of a massive pilgrimage by Shi'ite Muslims to the holy city of Karbala, in a rite that was banned under Saddam Hussein.
Democratic Senator Joe Biden said the huge turnout for the pilgrimage and the attacks on US-led forces showed the frustration of Iraqis who were beginning to doubt US intentions.
"They're beginning to wonder whether or not we are an occupying force or we're the liberators because there's no clear statement made, there's no clear articulated plan as to how we're going to transition this power over to the Iraqis," Biden told NBC television.
"The failure to bring in serious, heavy assistance coming from Europe and Russia and other parts of the world I think reinforces in the minds of the Shias and others that, wait a minute, do these guys know what they're doing?" he said.
Republican Senator Richard Lugar also urged Bush to reach out to other countries, including France, Germany, China and Russia, for help in Iraq.
'They really owe us'
"They really owe us for the stability that we are trying to bring about. At the same time, we owe them a genuine attempt to have an international view of this," Lugar said.
But he said the unrest overshadowed positive developments in the country.
"Life goes on in Iraq now, it goes on pretty steadily in most parts of the country," Lugar said.
"There are these sporadic events involving terrorists and they're horrible, for our troops and for the Iraqi people that are involved. But that is the war against terrorism, as a matter of fact, that's being fought in Iraq."
- AFP
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