Bush Sees Iraq Progress From Troop Buildup

FORT JACKSON, S.C., Nov. Two — President Shrub offered an cheerful appraisal on Friday of advancement in , saying that while corruptness remained a job and unemployment was high, the economic system was growing, force was down and, "slowly but surely, the people of Republic Of Iraq are reclaiming a normal society." Range of War

Speaking to 1,300 alumni of the Army's basic preparation encampment here, Mr. Shrub gave his first advancement study on Republic Of Iraq since September, when he announced that his troop buildup would come up to an end by adjacent spring, with decreases beginning at the end of this year.

In the September speech, the president called the new scheme "return on success," a phrase he reiterated in his comments here on Friday.

To do his lawsuit that the scheme is working, Mr. Shrub ticked off a litany of statistics. Since the buildup was completed in June, he said, the figure of onslaughts each hebdomad involving I.E.D.'s, or improvised explosive devices, had dropped by half. The figure of American armed forces deaths, he said, had fallen to its last degree in 19 months.

With Karbala State moving to Iraki control this week, Mr. Shrub said Iraqis were now responsible for security in 8 of Iraq's 18 provinces.

"The Iraqis are becoming more than capable, and our military commanding officer states me that these additions are making possible what I name 'return on success,'" Mr. Shrub said. "That agency we're slowly bringing some of our military personnel place — and now we're doing it from a place of strength."

Mr. Shrub typically happens friendly audiences at military bases, and Friday was no exception; the alumni and their relations and friends applauded wildly as he arrived on the grassy parade field here, and they interrupted his comments respective modern times with ft stomping and cheers.

The address came as Mr. Shrub was pressing the Democratic-controlled Congress to O.K. an exigency disbursement measure for the warfares in Republic Of Iraq and Afghanistan. Argument on the disbursement measure may not take topographic point until early adjacent year, but some are already predicting that the Democrats may do another effort to coerce Mr. Shrub to switch scheme in Iraq, in order to convey the military personnel place more quickly than he had planned.

In a statement responding to Mr. Bush's speech, the Senate Democratic leader, of Nevada, accused the president of "overstating the security situation" in Iraq.

"While the lessening in U.S. and Iraki civilian deceases is welcome news, force stays high in Iraq," Mr. Thomas Reid said. "Our primary end — political rapprochement — is still out of reach, and Iraki security military units have got not met the duties the president himself laid out for them when he proclaimed his escalation scheme in January."

When Mr. Shrub first announced the troop buildup in January, he said it was intended to give the authorities of Prime Curate "breathing space" to construct a cohesive cardinal authorities that could bridge over the sectarian divisions that were ripping Republic Of Iraq apart. Mr. Shrub conceded Friday that "reconciliation at the national degree hasn't been what we hoped it'd been by now," and said he had "made my letdowns clear to the Iraki leadership."

But he argued, as he have in the past, that rapprochement was taking topographic point at the local level, and that Shi'Ite and Sunnite leadership were beginning to collaborate with one another to struggle against , a homegrown extremist grouping that American intelligence federal agencies state is foreign-led.

Mr. Shrub also took the unusual measure of offering a body-count figure, saying that together with Iraki forces, American military personnel had killed or captured an norm of more than than 1,500 "enemy fighters" per calendar month since January.

On the economical front, the president argued that Iraki society was beginning to go back to normal.

"We're seeing improvements in of import economical indicators," he said. "Inflation have been cut in half. Electricity production in September reached its peak degrees since the warfare began — and higher than it was under ."

Think tank: Europe must steer Kosovo to independence or face renewed conflict

PRISTINA, Serbia: An international think tank said Tuesday that the European Union should support independence for Kosovo or risk plunging the region into violence.

New talks between ethnic Albanians and Serbia are likely to fail, the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said in a report, adding that the EU's failure to form a common position on Kosovo's independence would have "very disturbing consequences for Europe."

"If it is incapable once again, it would almost certainly lead to bloodshed and renewed regional chaos that would blow back into Central and Western Europe in the form of refugees and stronger organized crime networks," said Sabine Freizer of ICG.

Kosovo has been under United Nations and NATO control since 1999 after NATO's 78-day air war against Yugoslavia, waged to stop a crackdown on the province's separatist ethnic Albanians.

The report, titled "Breaking the Kosovo Stalemate: Europe's Responsibility," called upon the bloc to coordinate a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders if talks between the two sides, slated to end by Dec. 10, do not result in an agreement.




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However, it urged Western diplomats to "restrain Kosovo Albanians from unilateral actions," fearing an unsupervised declaration of independence could prompt leaders in Kosovo's Serb-dominated north to respond with a separatist move of their own.

Envoys from United States, the European Union and Russia launched a 120-day effort to end the impasse over Kosovo after Russia's threat to block in the U.N. Security Council a Western-backed plan to grant the province internationally supervised independence.

The plan, drafted by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, would give broad rights to the Serb minority in Kosovo and proposes that the province separate from Serbia after a period of international supervision under EU leadership.

The 37-page report of the International Crisis Group urged the EU and U.S. to enforce the Ahtisaari plan, despite Russia's opposition to Kosovo's independence.

Ethnic Albanian leaders and Serbian officials are to hold the next round of talks with international envoys Aug. 30 in Vienna, Austria. Both sides have expressed doubt that an agreement can be reached.

Hashim Thaci, an ethnic Albanian negotiator, said Tuesday the province's leaders "will be very clear, cooperative and determined that Kosovo's independence be official and recognized very soon by the U.S., EU and that Russia should not in any way be allowed to unilaterally prevent this."

Kosovo's leaders insist on independence from Serbia following the 1998-99 conflict that left 10,000 dead in the face of an onslaught from Serbian forces. Serbia considers the territory an integral part of the country.

"If Kosovo explodes because the independence issue is mishandled, the regional risks would include that eight years worth of international resources and prestige dedicated to managing the crisis would be lost," the report said.

"The genie of ethnic conflict would be let loose again."