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Rice urges patience over Iraq
19/03/2007 18:19 - (SA)
Washington - US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice called on Monday for patience on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, vowing that a peaceful, civil society would eventually prevail there.
Rice told NBC: "It will take some time for the violence to change.
"I would ask the American people to be patient. We have invested a lot.
"It's worth the sacrifice and ultimately I believe that we and the Iraqis together will prevail."
While conceding that much had not gone well in the four years since the US-led invasion, Rice said that there was much to be heartened about in Iraq.
"Saddam Hussein is gone," she said. "The Iraqi people have an opportunity of having been liberated from this tyrant to build a country based on politics and not tyranny. They voted. They have a constitution."
She said there also were signs of progress in defeating Iraq's stubborn insurgency and the bloody sectarian violence that has engulfed the country.
Iraqis have 'new opportunity'
A new US military commander David Petraeus was in place and there had been a fresh infusion of thousands of US troops on the ground, she said.
Rice said: "From the point of view of the US, the counter-insurgency strategy that general Petraeus is now pursuing is a strategy that has a chance to give the Iraqis a new opportunity to get their political reconciliation in place.
"That would stop my list of things that have gone right."
Despite the US secretary's upbeat assessment, sectarian violence continued on Monday in Iraq as gunmen killed three civilians in attacks in the mainly Shi'ite town of Hilla, south of Baghdad.
Another 14 Iraqis were killed and seven US troops were reported dead on Sunday as the nation prepared to mark the fourth anniversary on Tuesday of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
- AFP
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