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Bush, Blair back tough security for Iraq
US President Bush and Britain's Tony Blair Monday welcomed Iraq's new interim government as it rushed into office but said it may need to take tough measures to tackle a violent insurgency.
Bush, who faces a tough re-election battle this year amid growing discontent over U.S. involvement in Iraq, said the formal handover in Baghdad was "a day of great hope for Iraqis and a day that terrorist enemies hoped never to see."
Asked if Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government, which took power two days earlier than expected, might impose martial law, Bush said "He (Allawi) may take tough security measures against Zarqawi -- he may have to."
"He will not cower in the face of brutal murder and neither will we," said Bush.
The U.S. has said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant, is to blame for a wave of kidnappings, beheadings and bombings that have wracked Iraq in the run up to the transfer of authority from U.S.-led occupiers to an Iraqi government.
"Undoubtedly the new Iraqi government will want to take tough security measures. They have to," said Blair. "They've got a situation where they're got these terrorists who are prepared to kill any number of innocent people."
"They can't whip our militaries. What they can do is get on your TV screens and stand in front of your TV cameras and cut somebody's head off in order to try to cause us to cringe and retreat. That's their strongest weapon," Bush said.
ALLIES
Bush and Blair, the close allies who went to war in Iraq without U.N. approval over weapons of mass destruction that have never been found, appeared together hours after the handover.
Both men praised the early transfer although U.S. officials admitted it was done in part to try to forestall a day of bloodshed Wednesday, the scheduled handover day.
Bush said the Iraqi people now had their country back "after decades of brutal terror." Blair sounded more circumspect, calling the handover "an important staging post on the journey of the people of Iraq toward a new future."
With 160,000 U.S.-led coalition forces still in Iraq to try to fight back militants many critics say the oil-rich Middle Eastern state's sovereignty is severely constrained.
Blair said he still doubted his critics would now see the United States and Britain as liberators of Iraq. His domestic popularity has been badly damaged by the Iraq war, which many of his electors view as unnecessary and unjust. |
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