re: Neither side in the south is one we'd support in a vaccumn. We should just move to the Kurdish region, they are the only group there that deserves our support.
And then withdraw.
McCain Pressures Iraqi Leaders on Gov't By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) renewed pressure on Iraqi leaders to quickly form a new government in meetings Saturday, while more than 50 people were killed in violence, many in a gunbattle between Shiite militia forces and insurgents south of Baghdad.
McCain, R-Ariz., was in the country with Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who opposed the war in Iraq, just four days after another powerful group of American politicians traveled here to press Iraqi politicians to overcome their differences.
"The American people, no matter what party they are associated with, want the experiment of democracy to succeed," McCain said.
Feingold did not speak, but nodded in agreement as McCain spoke about the future of Iraq.
The delegation arrived in Iraq as the Bush administration has been applying extreme pressure on Iraqi politicians to form a government. Washington hopes to begin withdrawing troops this summer, banking on a decrease in violence once a national unity government is in place.
South of the capital, 40 people were killed or wounded in a big gunbattle near Mahmoudiya, police said. Police said gunmen of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia were fighting insurgent forces, which are primarily Sunni Muslim.
Hospital officials reported two civilians were killed when a mortar shell slammed into their house in the town, some 20 miles south of Baghdad.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has formed a coalition of with Sunni and secular politicians against a second term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a move that deepened the stalemate more than three months after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
After a meeting later Saturday with al-Jaafari, McCain said he was aware that Americans and Iraqis both wanted U.S. troops out of the country.
"All Americans and all Iraqis would like to see the United States withdraw but only after the Iraqi people have a government that can guarantee their security, their safety and their future," McCain said.
Earlier Saturday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad also told assembled Iraqi athletes assembled at a community sports center that the country was at a "defining moment."
"As I speak Iraqi leaders are struggling to form a government of national unity. This is a critical step for the future of Iraq, it's a defining moment," Khalilzad said.
The main challenge, the U.S. envoy said, was "to overcome the strife that threatens to rip apart Iraq."
On Tuesday, Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), the Virginia Republican who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the panel, delivered a tough message to Talabani and al-Jaafari.
They warned that Americans were running out of patience and could force U.S. leaders to decrease troop strength if the delays in forming a government continued.
Elsewhere, a female teacher was killed by Iraqi soldiers as she drove past their convoy, police said.
Gunmen also killed a Sunni mosque preachers when he stopped to have his car repaired in west Baghdad.
Earlier, a bomb exploded in a traffic police hut in north Baghdad, killing four civilians. Five people, including a traffic policeman, were wounded in the attack near the Iraqi Finance Ministry, police said.
Three people in a car were killed by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul and two were wounded, one critically police said.
In Balabroz, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad, two men were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police checkpoint, authorities said.
Iraqi police also found two more bodies, with their hands and legs tied and shots to the head. One was in southeastern Baghdad; the second was floating in the Tigris River, 55 miles south of the capital.
On Friday, at least 51 other people were reported to have died in violence, including two U.S. soldiers killed in western Anbar province.
Perhaps anticipating the Saturday meeting with the American delegation, Talabani on Friday issued a highly optimistic report on progress toward hammering out the shape of a new unity government.
He said the government could be in place for parliamentary approval by the end of the month, though he acknowledged "I am usually a very optimistic person." He spoke to reporters after a fifth round of multiparty talks among the country's polarized political factions. Khalilzad brokered the sessions.
A less optimistic al-Jaafari has said a Cabinet list could be ready by the end of April, a full month beyond the Talabani estimate.
In a lighter moment during a news conference, McCain also had high praise for Khalilzad, calling the Afghan-born envoy a "a national treasure."
Khalilzad, standing in the back row with junior members of the delegation, smiled broadly, then laughed when McCain said the Afghan-born diplomat also possessed a "large ego."
Despite opposition to his possible second term, Al-Jaafari suggested Friday he had no plans to step aside.
'There is no one in the world who wins unanimously except as used to happen during Saddam's era," he said.
On Feb. 12, Shiite lawmakers chose al-Jaafari to head the new government, selecting the incumbent by a one-vote margin over Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. |
