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Bush: We ain't going nowhere
25/05/2004 07:01 - (SA)
Carlisle, Pennsylvania - Embattled US President George W Bush has outlined broad plans for the country's return to self-rule, including the demolition of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Faltering in public opinion polls, with his approval rating at an all-time low, Bush described a five-step process for Iraq's return to sovereignty on June 30.
Under the plan, a transitional administration takes over on June 30 to prepare for January elections that will choose a national assembly. The Assembly will draft a new constitution that will allow a permanent government to be chosen by the end of next year.
Earlier on Monday, the United States and Britain presented a new draft resolution on Iraq to the UN Security Council, in a bid to gain global support for the plan.
In his speech to the Army War College here, Bush warned that "there are difficult days ahead and the way forward may sometimes appear chaotic".
Yet he vowed the handover would take place on schedule.
"We will persevere, and defeat this enemy, and hold this hard-won ground for the realm of liberty," he said, adding that Washington's goal was not limited to military success.
"America's task in Iraq is not only to defeat an enemy, it is to give strength to a friend, a free, representative government that serves its people and fights on their behalf," Bush said. "And the sooner this goal is achieved, the sooner our job will be done."
However, the president did not set out a specific date for the withdrawal of US and other coalition forces, which the draft UN resolution envisions remaining in Iraq for at least a year.
Instead, he said the current US troop level, which now stands at 138 000, would remain the same for "as long as necessary" and could grow depending on the situation on the ground and requests from military commanders.
"If they need more troops, I will send them," Bush said.
In his speech, Bush did not unveil any new policy initiatives, but did say that Abu Ghraib, the site of numerous atrocities under Saddam Hussein's regime as well as the scene of abuses of Iraqi detainees by US troops, would be demolished after Washington constructs a new prison facility.
"When that (new) prison is completed, detainees at Abu Ghraib will be relocated," he said. "Then, with the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib prison, as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning."
At the United Nations, where the new resolution was distributed to the 15 members of the Security Council, Washington and London were looking to do just that but diplomats said many blanks remained to be filled.
The draft, which formalises an end to the US-led occupation more than one year after the invasion that toppled Saddam, sets no date for US and British troops to leave Iraq and gives them wide-ranging powers to maintain order and fight "terrorism".
- AFP
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