NEWPORT, R.I., June 28 U.S. President George Bush told a military audience in Rhode Island that the Iraq surge strategy is working and said Iraq can become a democracy like Israel.
Speaking Thursday at the Naval War College, Bush said that terrorists have been causing death for years in Israel as they have been in Iraq recently.
"The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy that is not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities," he said. "And that's a good indicator of success that we are looking for in Iraq -- the rise of a government that can protect its people, deliver basic services for all its citizens and function as a democracy even amid violence."
Bush said that the troop increase and change in strategy in Iraq is bearing fruit in Anbar Province, where the U.S. military has been working with Sunni leaders against al-Qaida. Planners now hope to replicate that success in Baghdad and its environs, he added.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
