Bush hits out at critics of Iraq strategy

WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush on Saturday warned opposition Democrats against cutting funds for the Iraq war and said those who oppose his new plan must put an alternative on the table.   

"Those who refuse to give this plan a chance to work have an obligation to offer an alternative that has a better chance for success. To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible," he said in his weekly radio address.   

Bush also downplayed hostility to his blueprint among Democrats who now control the US Congress and his Republican allies, as some opponents of the US presence in Iraq have threatened to try to withhold spending.   

He called his new plan "an important mission that will in large part determine the outcome in Iraq" and warned that "our brave troops should not have to wonder if their leaders in Washington will give them what they need".   

"Whatever our differences on strategy and tactics, we all have a duty to ensure that our troops have what they need to succeed," said the embattled president.   

Some of Bush's top foreign policy aides, looking to build support in the US Congress for the plan, have instead run into hostile questioning and charges that the White House's strategy is a blunder on the order of escalating the US involvement in the Vietnam war.   

"We recognize that many members of Congress are skeptical. Some say our approach is really just more troops for the same strategy. In fact, we have a new strategy with a new mission: helping secure the population, especially in Baghdad. Our plan puts Iraqis in the lead," said the president.   

"Only the Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people. Their leaders understand this, and they are stepping forward to do it. But they need our help, and it is in our interests to provide that help," he said.   

Bush said that his new strategy fixed flaws that doomed previous efforts to pacify Baghdad by deploying more US and Iraqi troops and giving them a freer hand to quell sectarian violence.   

Bush also said that he saw hopeful signs in volatile al-Anbar province, saying that local tribal leaders were taking on Al-Qaeda and that he was ordering 4,000 more troops in hopes that they can "deal a serious blow" to the terrorist group.   

The president said the United States would hold Iraq' government to pledges of taking over the country's security by November, sharing oil revenues fairly, and spending 10 billion dollars on jobs and reconstruction projects.   

"These are strong commitments.  And the Iraqi government knows that it must meet them, or lose the support of the Iraqi and the American people," he said.   

Finally, he said, the United States will take steps to prevent weapons and fighters from entering Iraq from Iran and Syria and will pressure Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states to boost economic aid to Iraq.