Bush's Baghdad visit

PRESIDENT BUSH'S surprise visit yesterday to Baghdad for a face-to-face meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was valuable for the supportive signal it sent to Iraq's embattled government.

Iraqis need American assistance. They need help in the training and equipping of security forces, in the molding of institutions that are honest and competent, and in the provision of technology and expertise to rehabilitate Iraq's oil industry and its electricity grid.

One reason for these needs is the sabotage carried out by former Ba'athists and Islamist fanatics. But another cause of the current chaos may be traced to the blunders committed by Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and other policy makers after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime three years ago. That history had to be in the minds of Iraqis yesterday when Bush told Maliki, ``I have come to not only look you in the eye; I have also come to tell you that when America gives its word, it will keep its word."

Presumably, Bush was saying Iraqis can trust his administration not to abandon them prematurely. But Iraqis have had to live with the chain of disasters traceable to an attitude Rumsfeld expressed when he responded to an ominous outbreak of postwar looting by saying glibly: ``Stuff happens."

What Bush should have told Maliki in private is that he will honor his obligation to help Iraqis cope with the Sunni Arab insurgency -- but not indefinitely. America cannot let Iraq become a safe haven for Al Qaeda, but nevertheless Iraqis must soon take the lead in waging and winning their war against insurgents who are overwhelmingly Iraqi.

The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the ensuing capture of useful documents were steps in the right direction, as were the completion of an Iraqi Cabinet with competent ministers and Jordan's contribution to Zarqawi's capture. The foreign Islamist sector of the insurgency has been weakened; Maliki has begun the crucial work of bringing Sunni Arab factions into the political arena; and at least one other Arab country has joined in Iraq's struggle against Islamist extremism.

If Bush is serious about finding the right policy balance for Iraq, he will order an end to petty and divisive political tricks. There are Republicans who want to withdraw now from Iraq and Democrats who are willing to stay until the worst outcomes have been prevented. The fate of Iraq is too important to America and the world to be determined by the dishonest slogans of partisans.