sh sought to back his case for keeping US troops in
Iraq by drawing parallels between Iraq and the Vietnam War.
From the beginning of the Iraq War, the White House has resisted analogies to
Vietnam, apparently convinced that any association with such an unpopular
venture was a political loser for the president.
When Bush was asked at a news conference in June 2006 whether he saw any
parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, he replied with a simple "No."
That posture changed markedly with Bush's speech in Kansas City when he
sought to focus the audience on what he described as the horrific consequences
of US withdrawal - Vietnamese re-education camps in which many perished and the
hundreds of thousands of people murdered by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
The inference was clear: people who think America can get out of Iraq with
minimal human costs are sadly mistaken.
"Whatever your position is on that debate," Bush said, "one unmistakable
legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions
of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like
`boat people,' `re-education camps' and `killing fields."'
Salih also said Iraq's 350,000-strong forces were not ready to assume full
responsibility for security.
Debate in Washington over the war and the failure of Iraq's government to use
the breathing space provided by extra US troops to foster reconciliation has
become so charged that some Democrats including presidential hopeful Senator
Hillary Clinton have called for Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki to be replaced.
Salih said such comments were unhelpful.
"Those who are demanding the replacement of Mr Maliki need to offer an
alternative, because changing the government just for the sake of it without
offering a credible alternative that can turn things for the better will not be
useful," he said.
Asked if the collapse of Maliki's government would plunge the country deeper
into crisis, Salih said: "In the absence of a credible alternative, a better
alternative, it would be problematic, chaotic. In the context of Iraq, when you
talk about problems, you are talking serious problems."
He repeatedly said there were no quick fixes to Iraq's woes.
Some key laws could be ratified by parliament by the end of the year, Salih
said.
These included a draft law that will ease restrictions on former members of
Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from joining the civil service and the military.
Many members are Sunni Arabs who feel persecuted by Maliki's government. That
timeline will likely prove too long for US lawmakers, who are demanding concrete
progress on political benchmarks seen as vital to bridging the deep divide
between warring Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs.
Parliament reconvenes on September 4 after a month-long recess.
The government has yet to present any of the key draft laws, including draft
legislation that aims at equitable sharing of Iraq's vast oil wealth among its
different sects and ethnic groups.
Salih said: "If we decided to go and present these laws, probably we will be
able to get a majority on most of them," but he added that this would not be
enough.
"We are in a system where there must be a much wider margin because these
laws are designed to bring about national unity. It's not just about majority
rule," he said.
