Iraqi interim Prime Minister Seeks Aid,Sees a 'War for Civilized World'

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-allawi22sep22.story

Seeking Aid,Leader Sees a 'War for Civilized World'
By Paul Richter
Times Staff Writer

September 22, 2004

WASHINGTON — Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi began a weeklong visit to the United States on Tuesday, urging Americans to continue backing his fragile government while portraying events in his war-racked homeland with striking optimism.

At a time when surging violence in Iraq has alarmed many Americans, Allawi declared during an appearance with President Bush at the United Nations that "we are defeating the terrorists." The prime minister insisted that U.S. and Iraqi forces had pushed back insurgents everywhere but in isolated pockets of the country.

The 59-year-old former exile, campaigning to strengthen U.S. commitment to his nation, declared that the war in Iraq "is really not only an Iraqi war; it's a war for the civilized world."

Insurgents and foreign terrorists want to undermine Iraq and then the Middle East, he said, adding: "And once they do this, they will hit hard at the civilized world and in Washington and New York and London and Paris and Ankara , elsewhere, everywhere, in the civilized world."<snip>