Reuters  --  Arab News

WASHINGTON, 2 May 2004 — A year after declaring major combat over in Iraq, President George W. Bush said yesterday that US forces still face serious challenges there but that daily life is improving for Iraqis in many ways.

Bush, in his weekly radio address, sought to put the best face possible on a difficult situation in Iraq, where the United States and its allies went to war over weapons of mass destruction that have never been found and are now caught in a bloody guerrilla insurgency.

“One year later, despite many challenges, life for the Iraqi people is a world away from the cruelty and corruption of Saddam’s regime,” Bush said, citing widely available electricity, thriving banks, reopened schools and clinics, hospitals being renovated and an oil industry pumping out 2.5 million barrels a day.

A year ago, Bush put on a flight suit, landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and declared major combat operations over in Iraq in front of a “mission accomplished” banner.

A year later, parts of Iraq have descended into chaos. Since Bush declared an end to major combat, 428 US service personnel have been killed in action in Iraq, 127 of them in April alone. Fewer than 100 died in the three weeks it took to topple Saddam Hussein.

Bush said more violence is likely as the transfer of sovereignty from the US-led coalition to an interim Iraqi government approaches a June 30 deadline.

“On the ground in Iraq, we have serious and continuing challenges,” Bush said, blaming “illegal militias and remnants of the (Saddam Hussein) regime, joined by foreign terrorists.”

Bush said US forces supported efforts by local Iraqis to negotiate the disarmament of insurgents in restive Fallujah and had made it clear to militias in Najaf that they must disarm.

“American coalition forces are in place, and we are prepared to enforce order in Iraq,” he said.

A successful democracy in Iraq “would send forth the news, from Damascus to Tehran, that freedom can be the future of every nation,” he said.

The United States is preparing to impose sanctions on Syria for allegedly supporting terrorism and for failing to stop guerrillas entering Iraq. And it has accused Iran of wanting to develop a nuclear weapon.

Bush is facing deepening doubts at home about the Iraq mission and his opponent in the Nov. 2 presidential campaign, Democrat John Kerry, said on Friday that the US mission there faces “a moment of truth.”

“We stand on the eve of an anniversary in this country — the day that major combat operations were declared over in Iraq and the president declared, ‘mission accomplished,’” Kerry said. “I don’t think there’s anyone in this room today or 6,000 miles away who doesn’t wish that those words had been true.”

Bush, accused by Democrats of having no exit strategy, said he had a “clear strategy” that starts with ensuring an atmosphere of security as plans proceed for a transfer of sovereignty.

“Families of the brave troops who have fallen must know that their loss is not in vain,” Bush said. “We will finish our work in Iraq, because the stakes for our country and the world are high.”