Baghdad, Iraq – In a surprise visit to Baghdad, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iraqi government leaders Saturday that the contentious debate in Washington over President Bush’s war strategy reflects U.S. doubts that democracy will prevail over violence.
“Some of the debate in Washington is in fact indicative of the concerns that some of the American people have … if the Iraqi government doesn’t do what it has said it will do,” Rice said she told leaders from all of Iraq’s factions.
Although Rice used her visit to publicly praise the Iraqi government’s role in a new security crackdown in Baghdad, an Iraqi official who spoke on condition of anonymity said she was more critical in private.
Rice told Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders that the Baghdad security operation needs to “rise above sectarianism” and noted that no U.S. or Iraqi forces have yet moved into the capital’s major Shiite militia stronghold, the Iraqi official said.
Meeting with a small group of troops and U.S. Embassy staff inside the old Saddam Hussein-era palace that serves as U.S. headquarters in the fortified Green Zone, Rice referenced the week of bitter debate on Capitol Hill.
“I keep hearing and reading the American people don’t want to fight this war anymore. I don’t think that’s right. The American people want to know that we can succeed,” Rice said.
