WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- President Bush Monday night offered details on his plan to create a free, safe and democratic Iraq, acknowledging several unintended consequences of U.S. actions but also warning of continued bloodshed through the June 30 deadline to transfer sovereignty.
"Completing the five steps to Iraqi elected self-government will not be easy," Bush said. "There's likely to be more violence before the transfer of sovereignty and after the transfer of sovereignty. The terrorists and Saddam loyalists would rather see many Iraqis die than have any live in freedom."
"But," he added to applause, "terrorists will not determine the future of Iraq."
Bush's speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., came amid continued violence and a drop in the president's polling numbers for his handling of the war in Iraq, the economy and his lowest overall job approval rating ever.
It was his most extensive explanation to date of the plans and reasoning behind U.S. policies in Iraq, and came after a meeting Friday to shore up support among Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.
The speech called for five overarching achievements: handing over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government; helping to establish stability and security in Iraq to sustain the democracy; continuing to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure; encouraging more international support; and moving toward free, national elections no later than January.
Within an hour of the speech, the campaign for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the likely Democratic Party nominee for president, issued a statement that said the president's efforts at multilateralism have fallen short.
"The president laid out general principles tonight, most of which we've heard before," Kerry's statement said. "What's most important now is to turn these words into action by offering presidential leadership to the nation and to the world. That's going to require the president to genuinely reach out to our allies so the United States doesn't have to continue to go it alone and to create the stability necessary to allow the people of Iraq to move forward.
"That's what our troops deserve, and that's what our country and the world need at this moment."
As expected, Bush's speech Monday did not include a timetable for the return to the United States of the estimated 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Bush said he intended to keep deployment at the same level "as long as necessary" after the transfer of civilian power. The troops would be under U.S. command as part of a multi-national force authorized by the United Nations.
This exceeded commanders' estimations that 115,000 troops were necessary at this point in the conflict, Bush said, because of the increase in violence.
The decision also can be seen as an acknowledgement of opponents' criticisms Bush and the Pentagon have consistently underestimated how many troops would be necessary to successfully complete the mission in Iraq.
In a book published Monday, retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni charged "everyone" knew the U.S. military plan was inadequate to deal with the situation in Iraq, the Washington Post reported.
Zinni, former U.S. commander in the Middle East, wrote that in the lead up to the war and the later conduct "I saw, at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility; at worst, lying, incompetence and corruption. ...
"If there is a center that can hold this mess together, I don't know what it is. Civil war could break out at any time. Resources are needed; a strategy is needed; and a plan is needed."
The administration also has come under fire for its dependence on Iraqi National Congress head and former Pentagon adviser Ahmed Chalabi, who is charged with providing faulty intelligence to the United States and passing U.S. intelligence to Iran.
Chalabi spent the weekend on the U.S. television talk-show circuit denying the charges, while the Bush administration has firmly distanced itself from the opposition leader.
"His future is in the hands of the Iraqi people," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Monday.
"The president is looking forward. The past is the past," he added.
One controversy the president addressed head-on in the speech was the scandal over allegations U.S. troops tortured Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib facility outside Baghdad.
The story emerged several weeks ago with photographic evidence of the abuse, and was further enflamed by more pictures released last week. As part of a conciliation gesture, Bush said Monday he intended to knock down the facility and replace it with a modern prison system.
"Under the dictator (Saddam Hussein), prisons like Abu Ghraib were symbols of death and torture," he said. "That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values. ...
"With the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib prison as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning."
But bad news continued Monday when four more people -- believed to be Americans -- were killed in a bombing inside Baghdad's "Green Zone," an area containing the Coalition Provisional Authority that is supposed to have one of the highest security levels.
The solution to these problems, Bush said, is to follow his five-point plan. Achievement of the U.S. goals -- "to see Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first time in generations ... to give strength to a friend -- a free, representative government that serves its people and fights on their behalf" -- will mark the end of the United States' obligation in Iraq.
"The sooner this goal is achieved, the sooner our job is done," he said, implying that U.S. troops facing multiple continuous deployments will be able to return home and Iraqis will be left to themselves.
But much of Bush's end-game plan depends on multilateralism, an element he eschewed in the run-up to the U.S. invasion. The U.S. delegation to the United Nations Monday circulated a draft resolution to garner international support for Iraq's political system, which is being developed by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Bush discussed the structure Brahimi had planned for the Iraqi system, which would include a president, two vice presidents and a prime minister leading a 26-member Cabinet.
He also asserted the importance of the U.N. role in post-war Iraq in the reconstruction and political ends. The administration's miscalculation with Chalabi undercuts any legitimacy about its ability to pick Iraq's leaders.
However, at the lead of the administration's effort to convince U.N. member nations to support its actions in Iraq is Secretary of State Colin Powell, the same person who presented the intelligence, which later proved to be faulty, leading to approval for the U.S. invasion over a year ago.
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