Iraqis split on US pledge to complete mission

BAGHDAD -- For engineering professor Moayad Yasin al-Samaraie, President Bush's pledge to keep US troops in Iraq until their mission is complete was the promise of order over chaos.

But the assurance rang hollow for Mona Hussein, who woke up yesterday without electricity or running water after spending the night on her roof trying to escape Baghdad's sweltering heat.

Iraqis on the street and the country's politicians seemed divided over Bush's refusal to provide a timetable for withdrawing US troops, along with his promises for a better life in this country of 26 million people.

''Iraq cannot be stable if the American and coalition forces leave," said Samaraie, 55. He said chaos could result ''because Iraqi forces don't have the required level of training to protect the country."

But Hussein, also an engineer, said withdrawing foreign troops might restore the security their presence has so far failed to establish.

''The terrorists will continue to attack the Americans as long as they're here. They should leave so that there will be less explosions and more security," she said.

''As long as they're here, we'll remain an occupied country, just like Palestine."

Many Iraqis said they didn't see the speech, which was broadcast at 4 a.m., and some who viewed excerpts of it considered it tailored to an American audience.

''It will make no difference. [Bush] has given speeches before, but we have not seen any results," said Hussein, a 25-year-old mother of two.

Bush's speech came on the one-year anniversary of the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis.

Violence has raged despite the political progress since then, including a January election that brought a new Shiite-led government to office.

More than 1,360 people have died since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari took over two months ago.

In Baghdad, before the US-led invasion, residents had about 20 hours of electricity a day.

Today, they get about 9.4 hours daily, usually broken into two-hour chunks. There are also frequent shortages of fuel and drinking water, and only 37 percent of the population has a working sewage system.

Jaafari, who met Bush in Washington last week, was quoted in yesterday's edition of the London-based Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat as saying that while the Iraqi government wanted foreign troops to leave as soon as possible, a withdrawal before Iraqi security forces were ready could only benefit ''terrorists."