United States President George W. Bush, hugs Anita Kukkola, the mother of PFC Jason Kukkola of Fountain Hills, Arizona, after he presented the soldier with a Purple Heart, during a visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., yesterday. - REUTERS
BAGHDAD, (Reuters):
A SUICIDE bomber blew up a bus near Iraq's oil ministry yesterday, killing police recruits, as President George W. Bush tried to shore up American support for the war to defend Iraq's new, U.S.-backed political system.
Next week, Iraqis vote in a constitutional referendum that Washington sees as a key step in establishing the legitimacy of governments likely to remain dominated by the Shi'ite majority; once dominant Sunni Arabs have vowed to try and thwart that, some by force of arms, others by using their votes on October 15.
"Wars are not won without sacrifice, and this war will require more sacrifice, more time, and more resolve," Bush said in a keynote speech in Washington designed to stiffen resolve as the number of Americans to die in Iraq since 2003 nears 2,000.
"The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced."
Two and half years after invading Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein using chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that he appears not to have possessed, the president said the country was now at the heart of a war to stop international Islamists establishing a new Muslim empire stretching from Europe to Asia.
"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that expands from Spain to Indonesia," he said.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, speaking in London, said it would take "one to two years" before Iraqi forces were ready to take over security from U.S.-led troops.
MOSQUE DEVASTATED
As investigators picked through the rubble of a Shi'ite mosque in Hilla, flattened the evening before at the start of the holy month of Ramadan, killing 25 and wounding about 90, another suicide attacker, strapped with explosives, boarded the bus in Baghdad and killed at least 11, mostly police recruits.
