Meanwhile, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news
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sites) and Jack Reed arrived in Baghdad on Friday, saying it isn't too
late to bring the United Nations (news
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sites) back to Iraq (news
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sites).
Clinton and Reed said the expense and political burden in administering
Iraq would be made easier with the U.N.'s stamp of legitimacy and help in
transferring power to Iraqis.
"I'm a big believer that we ought to internationalize this, but it will
take a big change in our administration's thinking," the former first lady
said. "I don't see that it's forthcoming."
Both senators cautioned that the Bush administration's new plans to
speed up the transfer of power to an Iraqi government are risky, given the
country's political and social upheaval.
Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said a "critical factor" for coalition
authorities was securing the blessing of Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim
community, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who has
criticized the plan.
Al-Sistani, whose opinion is crucial to the success of any political
plan in Iraq, has said in recent days he wants an elected Iraqi
provisional government instead of one chosen through regional caucuses.
"We're caught in a dilemma, possibly of our own making," Reed said. "A
quick, hasty election might bring to power a person who doesn't share the
values we're trying to encourage. But the more we wait, the more it looks
like an occupation."
Clinton said the main purpose of her trip was to show support for U.S.
troops.
"I wanted to come to Iraq to let the troops know about the great job
they're doing," the New York Democrat said.
Reed, who voted against authorizing war against Iraq, said his
rationale has been confirmed by his visit, as well as by a trip he made in
July.
He said the Bush administration was too hasty in dismissing the U.N.
search for weapons that probably would have shown that Iraq represented no
imminent threat to the United States. He said alleged links between Osama
bin Laden (news
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sites)'s al-Qaida terrorist network and Saddam Hussein (news
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sites) also appeared to be exaggerated.
For her part, Clinton supported a resolution granting Bush
congressional authority to wage war against Iraq.
Iraqis expressed differing opinions about the significance of
Thursday's 2 1/2-hour visit by Bush, which was organized in such secrecy
that even members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who
greeted the president were not told about it.
"We cannot consider Bush's arrival at Baghdad International Airport
yesterday as a visit to Iraq," said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the
U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. "He did not meet with ordinary
Iraqis. Bush was only trying to boost the morale of his troops."
A soldier died on Thanksgiving from a gunshot wound inside the heavily
fortified U.S. base in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. Military
officials have refused to describe the circumstances of the shooting.
Another soldier died Friday when four mortar shells pounded a 101st
Airborne Division base in Mosul. Iraqi insurgents have stepped up attacks
in previously calm Mosul in recent weeks.
U.S. soldiers in Ramadi shot a 7-year-old Iraqi child in the foot after
the child pointed an AK-47 automatic rifle at them, the U.S. military
said.
And a U.S. soldier was seriously wounded after a roadside bomb struck a
convoy he was traveling in near the town of Samarra, about 75 miles north
of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. William MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th
Infantry Division.
Two other U.S. soldiers were injured when their tank struck a land mine
near the Syrian border, the military said.
The military also said it had captured one of Saddam's former
bodyguards, identified as Brig. Gen. Khalid Arak Hatimy. The statement
said Hatimy had been inciting the uprising west of Baghdad and providing
money and weapons to guerrillas.
More than 60 U.S. troops have been killed in hostile action in
November, more than any other month since Bush declared the end of major
combat May 1. Since operations began, nearly 300 U.S. service members have
died from hostile action.