Bush Hopeful As War Enters Year Four

(CBS/AP)  President Bush on Monday cited progress in stabilizing an insurgent stronghold in northern Iraq, saying he has "confidence in our strategy" and contending that critics should look beyond the images of violence to see clear signs of progress.

Mr. Bush tried a new tactic to boost sagging support for the war, relating to his audience in Cleveland a lengthy story about a campaign to rid the northern city of Tal Afar of terrorism against civilians. Success there "gives reason for hope for a free Iraq," he said.

Mr. Bush described how the insurgents who had been using murder and intimidation to run roughshod over the city have been killed or captured by Iraqi forces and coalition troops working together.

The president's detailed description of the campaign — and the eventual success story — was meant to underscore another point the White House is trying to make: Evidence of progress is more difficult to capture in media sound bites than daily bombings and deaths.

"In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," Mr. Bush told the City Club of Cleveland. "Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't."

Mr. Bush said Tal Afar, a city of more than 200,000 near the Syrian border, was a strategic location for al Qaeda to recruit terrorists to come into the country and fight Iraq's legitimate government.

U.S. forces went into Tal Afar in September 2004 to clean out insurgent strongholds, but the insurgents returned after the Americans left. U.S. commanders said the insurgents were murdering and torturing civilians and kidnapping youth and turning them into terrorists.

The collapse of the first Tal Afar effort was an example of a broader problem the U.S. military has had throughout the three years in Iraq: They would "clean out" a town or city, then leave, and the insurgents would return because the Iraqis were unable to hold the city or town on their own. Now, the U.S. presence in such areas is stronger and Iraqi forces have a better chance to hold the area.

CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that while Tal Afar is far from completely secure, there are only about a quarter as many insurgent attacks there now than there were at this time one year ago.

The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment was sent back in a year after the first Tal Afar campaign, along with some Iraqi soldiers, to clean it out again and apparently was more successful.

"The strategy that worked so well in Tal Afar did not emerge overnight," Mr. Bush said. "It took time to understand and adjust to the brutality of the enemy in Iraq.

"I wish I could tell you that the progress made in Tal Afar is the same in every part of Iraq. It is not," he said.

Axelrod reports that the president pointed to Tal Afar as a model for how he intends to secure the rest of Iraq, with the "clear, hold and build" strategy — clear out the terrorists, hold the city with Iraqi forces and build its economy and government.

"The example of Tal Afar gives me confidence in our strategy," Mr. Bush said.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page »