World

Rice Confident In Iraq's Terror Stance

August 6, 2006 / 7:38 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Iraq is not on track to become another Iran despite the disconcerting images last week of Iraqis burning U.S. flags and chanting "Death to America," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

"I have no doubt that this is an Iraqi government and an Iraq that is going to be a fierce fighter in the war against terrorism, because they themselves are experiencing the effects of terror on their population," Rice said. "I have no doubt that this is going to be a government that is on the right side in the war on terror."

The protests in Baghdad on Friday were organized by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in response to fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. Crowds of al-Sadr supporters from across Iraq's Shiite heartland chanted "Death to Israel, Death to America" in the one of the biggest pro-Hezbollah rallies since the conflict began July 12.

Rice, during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, was asked whether the United States has helped create another fundamentalist Islamic regime in Iraq, such as the one in Iran. Rice said she did not like what the protesters said, but she believes that Iraq today is better off than when sectarian differences were oppressed through the iron rule of Saddam Hussein.

"That people would go out and demonstrate and say what they feel is the one sign that perhaps Iraq is one place in the Middle East where people are exercising their right to free speech," she said. "No. I don't like what they said."

She said she thinks that as Iraq becomes more stable and democratic "you won't have demonstrations of that kind.

"The notion that somehow Iraq under Prime Minister (Nouri al-Maliki) and his government is something akin to Iran is just not right. It's just erroneous," Rice said.

Rice also disputed suggestions that civil war is more likely than democracy.

In other developments:

Three U.S. soldiers were killed late Sunday in a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. No further details were released.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt Sunday night among mourners at a funeral in Tikrit, killing at least 10 people and wounding 22, police said. Police said the attack took place about 8:15 p.m. at the funeral of the father of a member of the provincial council. The council member, Saab Abd Bedeiwi, was killed in the attack, Hamid said. The death toll is expected to rise because body parts were scattered around the tent where the mourners were gathered, police said.

Unidentified Iraqi witnesses testified behind closed doors Sunday at a U.S. military hearing to determine if five American soldiers should be tried in the rape-slaying of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. The three of the girl's relatives also were killed in the town of Mahmoudiya on March 12 — one of the worst incidents in a series of cases alleging U.S. troops killed or abused Iraqi civilians.

U.S. soldiers sent to beef up security in Baghdad were seen for the first time on the streets of the capital Saturday as Iraqi police used loudspeakers to reassure people that the Americans were there to protect them. At least 21 people were killed or found dead, most of them in the capital. With Sunni-Shiite killings on the rise, about 3,700 soldiers of the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade were brought from northern Iraq to bolster U.S. and Iraqi security forces that have struggled to contain the violence in Baghdad.

Tens of thousands of Shiites thronged a Baghdad slum Friday to show support for Hezbollah as Arab anger toward Israel mounted on the Muslim holy day. Such protests have even reached Saudi Arabia, where public discontent is rare.

Two American soldiers were killed Friday in restive Anbar province west of the capital, the U.S. command said. It said only that they died "due to enemy action." At least 17 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since July 27, all but two of them in Anbar.

Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that sectarian violence in Baghdad could throw the country into civil war.

Meanwhile, two senators appearing on CBS's Face the Nation both gave much more pessimistic assessments of the situation in Iraq.

"This is a civil war. I think the generals, the other day, were cautious in their language. But I think they were telling us something loud and clear to anyone who wanted to listen," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. "I frankly don't believe that U.S. military people can necessarily play referee in that kind of a situation."

From Baghdad, CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann, reported that despite the latest influx of U.S. soldiers, U.S. commanders say the Iraqis have to do a better job of policing themselves, and there also has to be more of a show of political will by Iraqi political leaders.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., shared Dodd's gloomy assessment.

"I think where we go from here, with all the problems and inconsistencies, is a cold, hard assessment that Iraq is not going to turn out the way that we were promised it was," Hagel said. "That's a fact, not because I say it. That's where it's going, just as the general said it very honestly, I think, this week, before the Congress."

Both senators encouraged more involvement and discussions with other countries in the Middle East. Hagel said President Bush should get his father and former President Clinton involved in a regional summit. But he also acknowledged that the prospects for success would be unlikely.

"There are no good options here, no good options," said Hagel, a possible presidential candidate in 2008.