Bush Says Offensive in Basra Is Evidence of Iraq's Progress

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acDDOlr.bbFU&refer=home

By Roger Runningen and Catherine Dodge

March 27 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the Iraqi offensive against Shiite militants in Basra shows the government is committed to protecting its people and that the U.S. troop surge is bringing political and economic progress.

``The surge is doing what it was designed to do,'' Bush said in a speech at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. ``It's helping Iraqis reclaim security and restart political and economic life.''

Clashes between Iraqi forces and militants loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr raged in oil-rich Basra in southern Iraq for a third day. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday ordered the armed groups to surrender by March 29. The Bush administration regards the battle as a test of the Iraqi Security Forces' strength and Maliki's resolve.

The Iraqi forces' operation shows Maliki's ``leadership and his commitment to enforce the law in an even-handed manner,'' Bush said.

The fighting has killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 120, with civilians among the casualties, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union Kurdistan party said on its Web site. Forty-four more people were killed in clashes between U.S. and Iraqi forces and militia in the Shiite city of Kut in central Iraq, Agence France-Presse reported.

[LakeSamish706]

1. That POS just can't live unless he is killing someone, anyone..... WTF.. n/t

[bdamomma]

2. wow, this man is really a sick SOB

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7317123.stm.

he just loves war, calls it romantic, loves death and destruction and remains defiant.