Success of Bush's new plan depends on Iraqis, says paper

The Iraqi's commitment holds the key to the success of U.S. President Bush's new plan to stabilize Iraq, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday.

Although Bush and his aides are confident that putting more American troops on the streets of Baghdad can help turn Iraq around, but what they do not know is whether the Iraqi government will do its part, the paper said in an analysis.

The new plan will be a test of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki - a Shiite Moslem - and if he fails, the United States may look for a different leader as its partner in Iraq, the paper quoted unidentified officials as saying.

U.S. officials cast skepticism about Maliki, questioning whether his government "is really a unity government, or is it a government ... (with) a Shiite sectarian agenda, according to the paper.

"We need to clarify whether this government is really a partner or not ... The president has said we've got to know," one official was quoted as saying.

The paper said Maliki has failed to deliver on most of the following fronts -- share political power with moderate Sunni Arabs as well as with his Shiite supporters; commit more Iraqi government troops to the battle for Baghdad and crack down on sectarian militias, including those loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose party is in Maliki's government.

"As a result, a large part of Bush's speech was devoted not to explaining why he was sending more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, but to publicly warning Maliki that this may be his last chance to succeed with American support," the paper noted.

Source: Xinhua