World

New Fronts On War's Anniversary

March 20, 2004 / 8:55 AM EST / CBS/AP

On the first anniversary of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, two U.S. Marines were killed, another U.S. ally hedged its support for the mission and Arab journalists walked out of a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The journalists' walkout was to protest the shooting deaths of two Iraqi reporters, allegedly by U.S. troops.

Amid signs of strain in the U.S.-led coalition, Powell declared that the threat of terrorism persists and said it's no time for civilized nations to "run and hide."

Powell was speaking a day after the Polish government charged it had been misled by the United States about the fighting capability of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and as South Korea scrubbed plans for a mission to the Iraqi hotspot of Kirkuk, saying it would send its troops to a safer area. Spain has already indicated it will pull troops out by June unless the United Nations takes over.

Earlier, Powell spoke to U.S. troops and paid respects to the losses suffered by U.S. forces and by the Iraqis. The losses continued: insurgents killed two U.S. Marines who were on patrol, bringing to 569 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq.

In other developments:

In Baghdad, several explosions rocked the area housing the U.S.-led coalition headquarters on Friday night. Sirens wailed briefly.

President Bush marked Friday's Iraq war anniversary with a White House speech, and a visit to wounded soldiers.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski told Mr. Bush on Friday that Polish troops will stay in Iraq "as long as needed, plus one day longer," his national security adviser said. Staunch allies Australia and the Philippines have rushed to buttress the coalition amid signs of stress. Japan has likewise stood by its plans to deploy about 1,000 soldiers to assist with rebuilding in Iraq, Tokyo's largest overseas military dispatch since World War II.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday he is sending a U.N. team back to Iraq "as soon as possible" in response to an Iraqi request for help in organizing the political transition and elections.

A reporter for Arab satellite television station Al-Arabiya died from his wounds Friday after U.S. soldiers shot him hours earlier along with a cameraman, who died at the scene, the station said. The death brought to five the number of journalists killed in Iraq in less than 24 hours. The U.S. military said it had no information on the shootings. Powell said he regretted "any loss of life, journalists, coalition soldiers, missionaries, average Iraqi citizens going about their daily lives."

In the United States,

opinions of the war differ sharply

even among those with personal ties to the conflict. Capt. Katrina Gier, who only recently returned from service in Iraq, told the Early Show, "If we were making their lives just a little bit better and they weren't living in terror anymore, then it was the right thing to do to be over there." But Ken Landrus, who son Sean was killed in a January ambush, said, " I do think it's a waste of life. Like I said, I think bush had more sympathy for his dog he put to sleep than he does the kids getting killed."

Many Iraqis do feel their lot has improved, especially if they're from ethnic groups like the Shiites, who suffered under Saddam, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

Iraq's shops are full of imported goods and Iraqis are at last free to reach the outside world by telephone and satellite. They've embraced freedom of speech with170 new newspapers. After months of rolling blackouts, power is back online. And despite repeated sabotage of oil pipeline, Iraq is pumping out more oil than before the war.

The U.S. coalition has reopened schools and hospitals, and launched a new currency and a new security force.

"I think we've made great progress in one year," said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, telling the CBS News Early Show "a brutal dictatorship is gone and the Middle East will be a safer place."

"This man was a threat to peace and security and the world is far better off without him," Rice said.

But there's another new and unwelcome phenomenon, terrorism.

Thousands of people in Iraq have suffered from suicide bombings — a phenomenon unknown here until after the U.S.-led war toppled Saddam's regime nearly a year ago.

The cycle began nine days after fighting erupted, and has claimed at least 660 lives — far more than in 3½ years of Israel-Palestinian suicide attacks — according to U.S. military officials.

And American military officials say they cannot train and equip Iraqi security forces fast enough to stop the mounting toll of civilian deaths from terrorist attacks. Nor is there any intent to expand the American troop presence to counter the violence.

"The dedicated terrorist will be able to attack regardless of the number of security personnel," Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an Associated Press interview Thursday.

Besides creating political problems for the U.S.-led coalition, the violence toward civilians appears also to be causing some Iraqis to blame the Americans for failing to protect them, and even to accuse the Americans of perpetrating the attacks.

Pace and other senior U.S. military officials have said in recent days they expect violence against Iraqi civilians, and perhaps against American troops, to intensify as a June 30 deadline to hand over political power to Iraqis approaches.

"They are going to become more desperate," Pace said of the insurgents and terrorists. "And I think the opportunities, or the desire, for them to somehow lash out, to try to disrupt, will become more prominent."