Questions Build for U.S. as Iraq Turmoil Grows

CRAWFORD, Texas —  President Bush acknowledged Sunday that it had been a “tough week” in Iraq as he spent Easter at an Army base that lost at least nine soldiers in recent attacks.

He also conceded that “it’s hard to tell” whether the violence would soon ebb.

About 60 Americans and hundreds of Iraqis died last week as U.S.-led coalition troops fought Sunni Muslim forces in Fallouja and militias loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr in Baghdad and across southern Iraq. In addition, several foreigners have been taken hostage.

In a brief news conference at Ft. Hood, Texas, Bush sidestepped a question about whether more U.S. troops were needed to quell the violence and described the attackers as “a few people trying to stop progress toward democracy.”

“Our troops are taking care of business,” he said. “Their job is to make Iraq more secure so that a peaceful Iraq can emerge.”

But the administration faced sharp questions Sunday over its planned June 30 transfer of sovereignty, and U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III acknowledged that it was unclear who exactly would be in control.

Some Republican senators called for an increase in the number of U.S. forces in Iraq, an action the administration has resisted.

In appearances on several television news shows, Bremer reiterated his intention to uphold Bush’s deadline for returning sovereignty to an Iraqi government.

But when asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” how the government would be structured and who would hold power, Bremer replied: “That’s a good question.... It’s an important part of the ongoing crisis we have here now.”

On ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) urged Bush to “reevaluate” the deadline and echoed the call from Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to transfer authority for designing a new Iraqi government from the U.S. to the U.N.

“I think that’s ... an option that we have to pursue,” said Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It would perhaps encourage other countries to finally commit some security forces.... It’s not ideal, but it seems to me it’s really the only option that we have.”

And, she said, “to transfer power when we’re not even sure to whom we would be transferring power would be a mistake ... and might well result in Iraq erupting into civil war.”

But Bush’s commitment to meeting the June 30 target date received an important vote of confidence from Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who had been questioning the plan. “Credibility is at stake,” Lugar said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Now, that means you devote whatever you need to it and make sure it gets done.”

To meet the deadline, he said, the administration would probably need to send more American forces to Iraq. “It’s clear that we’re stretched,” Lugar said, “and the Iraqi security [forces] are not prepared yet to fight and to turn back insurgents.”

But Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said on “Meet the Press” that no new troops were needed. He said the current number -- 129,000 -- was adequate “with the management of the redeployment.” Delaying some troops’ return home as others arrive temporarily increases the force.

During his news conference, Bush noted that he had spoken twice recently with Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command. “He knows full well that, when he speaks to me, that if he needs additional manpower he can ask for it,” Bush said.

Bush, several members of his family and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice attended Easter services at the Ft. Hood chapel, where he said he prayed “on bended knee” for U.S. and coalition troops as well as “innocent Iraqis who suffer at the hands of some of these senseless killings by people who are trying to shake our will.”

He then met in the base hospital with 11 soldiers who were injured this month and awarded Purple Hearts to 10 of them. As recently as Friday, two dozen Ft. Hood soldiers arrived at the base for treatment.

Several national polls released late last week showed that the intensifying violence had shaken American confidence about the mission in Iraq. Polls for both Newsweek and CNN/Time found that Bush’s approval rating on Iraq had fallen to 44%.

In the CNN/Time survey, 46% of respondents said the U.S. should begin reducing its troop commitment. In the Newsweek poll, nearly two-thirds said they were either very or somewhat concerned that Iraq “will become another Vietnam in which the U.S. does not accomplish its goals despite many years of military involvement.”

Perhaps reflecting that anxiety, half of those surveyed by Newsweek said they wanted the U.S. to stick to the schedule of returning authority to an Iraqi government by the end of June, while only about one-third wanted to extend the deadline.

Bremer expressed confidence that the deadline could be met but acknowledged that he was relying heavily on U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to resolve many issues. Brahimi has been functioning as a negotiator between the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqis.

On “This Week,” Bremer dodged a question about one of the most sensitive issues in the negotiations: how much authority a new Iraqi government will exercise over U.S.-led troops that remain in the country to provide security.

Asked if the new Iraqi government would have a veto over U.S. military operations, Bremer said, “Let’s see when we get there what those arrangements are.” White House officials have said privately that no agreement has yet been reached on the degree of control an Iraqi government would exert over coalition forces.

The issue was thrown into starker relief Sunday in a Washington Post article revealing that a battalion of the new Iraqi army had refused to go into battle behind U.S. Marines in Fallouja last week. According to the Post, the Iraqi soldiers told U.S. officers: “We did not sign up to fight Iraqis.”

Sanchez acknowledged that the incident “did ... uncover some significant challenges in some of the Iraqi security force structures that have been put into place over the course of the last six months.”

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Chen reported from Crawford and Brownstein from Washington.