NYT : Bush Admits ‘Frustration’ With Iraqi Leader

Bush Admits ‘Frustration’ With Iraqi Leader

By JIM RUTENBERG | August 21, 2007

MONTEBELLO, Canada, Aug. 21 — President Bush today acknowledged “a certain level of frustration with the leadership” in Iraq, and for at least the third time this summer declined to offer an endorsement of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the man he once called “the right guy for Iraq.”

Mr. Bush’s comments came on the same day that the United States ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, called political progress “extremely disappointing” and one day after Senators Carl Levin and John Warner suggested parliament replace Mr. Maliki.

Mr. Bush seemed to beat back against that suggestion, saying it should be “up to the Iraqis to make that decision, not American politicians.”

Yet the answer also represented a new, if subtle, level of pessimism from Mr. Bush about Mr. Maliki with its implicit suggestion that Mr. Maliki could be ousted by the Iraqis themselves.

“If the government doesn’t respond to the demands of the people,” he said, “they will replace the government.”

Coming at a conference here focusing primarily on the trilateral relations between the United States, Mexico and Canada, Mr. Bush’s comments nonetheless served as a prelude to what is expected to be a renewed and strenuous White House effort to push back expected efforts by Congress to force an end to the war in September, when Congress reconvenes and the administration presents a legally required progress report.

Late in the afternoon, the White House said Mr. Bush, in a speech on Wednesday, would declare the battle in Iraq as vital as earlier American campaigns and would once again call for perseverance.

“There are many differences between the wars we fought in the Far East and the war on terror we are fighting today,” Mr. Bush plans to tell the convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars. “But one important similarity is that at their core, they are all ideological struggles.”

According to excerpts released by the White House, the president will hit hard against those who would force an end to the troop buildup. The speech includes this sharp warning:

“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?”

The White House said Mr. Bush’s speech to the V.F.W. in Kansas City, and another at the American Legion convention next week in Reno, Nev., are part of the president’s attempt to provide “broader context” to the debate in advance of assessments on military and political progress in Iraq, to be delivered in mid-September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander, and Mr. Crocker.

But, as Mr. Bush begins to lay out his case anew, he will also have to walk carefully in acknowledging the obvious failures of the Iraqi government to reach any major accommodations to bring reconciliation between Iraq’s fighting factions.

Today in Canada, Mr. Bush asserted that the troop increase that he ordered earlier this year to help stem violence while Iraqi politicians worked to implement policies bringing together rival national factions, was showing results — at least militarily. “It appears to me that there is some progress being made,” he said. “One aspect of my decision is working.”

And, he argued that even as the politicians in Iraq — who are currently on vacation — had “more work to do,” there had been “bottom up” progress toward reconciliation in the form of tribal leaders and Sunni militia fighters who have joined with the United States to quash terrorist groups in places like Anbar Province.

Experts, including members of the military currently serving in Iraq, have questioned the ultimate allegiance of those newly cooperative comrades who may share the same immediate goals as United States military now but could change once the “enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend” dictum runs its course.

David Stout contributed reporting from Washington.