KEY POINTS:
President George W. Bush referred publicly to the growing United States frustration with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki yesterday, but said the Iraqi people would have to decide whether to continue supporting him.
His remarks fell short of the glowing endorsement Maliki is accustomed to receiving from the US President and followed demands by the powerful Democratic Senator Carl Levin for the Iraqi Assembly to throw out Maliki.
Senator Levin is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and his comments on Tuesday that the Maliki Government is "non-functional" sent shockwaves through the political establishment.
Senator Levin wants US troop withdrawals to begin within four months and believes most US forces should be out of the country by the middle of next year.
"I hope the Parliament will vote the Maliki Government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government," Senator Levin said after a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan.
Bush was asked about Iraq at a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a North American summit.
In comments carefully scripted to avoid giving the impression that America is the political puppet master in Iraq, Bush said: "The fundamental question is will the Government respond to the demands of the people. And if the Government ... doesn't respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the Government. That's up to the Iraqis to make that decision, not American politicians."
The American Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, told reporters in Baghdad yesterday that progress was "extremely disappointing".
The carefully choreographed tours of parts of Iraq for US politicians have been run by the Defence Department. They brought Congressmen and Senators more accustomed to the corridors of power into the Green Zone to meet US and Iraqi officials.
They have also gone on whirlwind trips to forward fighting bases and there have been heavily guarded tours of open markets in Anbar province, where the US wants to show that its alliance with Sunni leaders has reduced violence.
Several Democratic politicians said on their return that they were no longer in favour of withdrawing US forces.
Senator Levin, by contrast was not pulling his punches as he made the most forceful call for leadership change in Iraq from a leading American politician. Some two dozen Congressmen and Senators travelled to Iraq during August to prepare themselves for next month's crucial progress report by General David Petraeus.
A majority in Congress want to end the war and their response to the Petraeus report may determine how long the US remains engaged in its failing war in Iraq.
Some of the returning politicians have expressed support for the US military strategy, but Senator Levin's opinion is the one the White House fears most.
Earlier he released a joint statement with Republican Senator John Warner, which cast doubt on Iraq's political future. Recent meetings between Maliki and Iraqi political leaders were "the last chance for this Government to solve the Iraqi political crisis", they said.
Should a planned summit between Maliki, rival Sunni political leaders and Kurdish officials fail to reach a compromise on a share-out of Iraq's oil and the return of Baath party members to some of their old jobs, then he should be ousted.
Senator Warner, once a supporter of the war, has become an outspoken sceptic of the US entanglement.
- Independent
