Riga, Latvia – President Bush, showing fresh determination to sustain the U.S.-led effort to stabilize both Afghanistan and Iraq, urged allies to do more to help and vowed he would not pull U.S. troops from Iraq “until the mission is complete.”
Bush, attending NATO summit meetings that began Tuesday and will continue today, called the struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan central to fighting extremism and pledged not to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
“We’ll continue to be flexible, and we’ll make the changes necessary to succeed,” he said.
The president also said Tuesday that he intended to press Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki for a plan to stem sectarian violence and a strategy for how the country will sustain and govern itself.
He blamed the escalating violence on an al-Qaeda plot, and he placed responsibility for ending it largely on the shoulders of al-Maliki, whom he will meet later today in Jordan for two days of talks.
While in Latvia, Bush is expected to press other members of the NATO alliance to contribute more to the effort to bring full security to Afghanistan and to lift restrictions on deploying their troops to the more dangerous areas of the country.
The Sunni fundamentalist Taliban, which controlled the Afghan government until it was deposed by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, has made a comeback, particularly in the southern part of the country. About 4,000 people are believed to have died in the insurgency so far this year.
And sectarian violence in Iraq has increased to such a point that some observers, including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, believe the nation is on the brink of civil war – if it has not already tumbled over the precipice.
Bush refused Tuesday to be drawn into a discussion about whether Iraq has descended into civil war.
The president, whose popularity has declined, is under pressure to find ways to avert failure for Washington and Iraq. But in Riga, he made it clear that, while he might try new tactics, he will not abandon his goals.
In a speech before the NATO summit began Tuesday evening, Bush said that defeating the Taliban “will require the full commitment of our alliance.”
And he added that NATO commanders in the field must have the flexibility to do the job – a pointed reference to countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain, which allow their troops to operate only in northern areas of the country, which are less dangerous.
Troops from the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are facing most of the fighting in Afghanistan.
Today’s meetings with al-Maliki will include Jordan’s King Abdullah, a close U.S. ally concerned about the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. The king has warned that the new year could begin with three wars in the region: civil war in Iraq and Lebanon and war between the Palestinians and Israelis.
McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.
