No DUH-bya, its the unwanted occupation and take over of their country by american troops
TALLINN, Estonia, Nov. 28 — President Bush today blamed al Qaeda for the rising wave of sectarian violence in Iraq, and refused to label the recent surge in killings there a civil war.
"There's a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented in my opinion because of the attacks by al Qaeda causing people to seek reprisal," Mr. Bush said. Referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq who was killed by American forces over the summer, he added, "The plan of Mr. Zarqawi was to foment sectarian violence."
The remarks, at a press conference here with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia, were Mr. Bush's first on the situation in Iraq since a series of bombings last Thursday killed more than 200 people in a Shiite district of Baghdad.
Mr. Bush also had harsh words for Syria and Iran, and reiterated his stance that he does not intend to negotiate directly with those nations to enlist their help in ending the violence in Iraq. He said he would leave such talks to the government of Iraq, "a sovereign nation which is conducting is own foreign policy."
Last week's bombings in Baghdad constituted the deadliest single attack since the American invasion. The following day, Shiite militiamen staged a vengeful reprisal, attacking Sunni mosques in Baghdad and in the nearby city of Baquba. The growing cycle of violence have prompted warnings from world leaders, including Jordan's King Abdullah and Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, that the region is at the brink of civil war.
But Mr. Bush, who heads to Jordan on Wednesday for two days of meetings with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, dismissed a question about whether a civil war has indeed erupted. "There's all kinds of speculation," he said, adding, "No question about it, it's tough."
As the tensions in Iraq have escalated, so have the tensions between the Bush and Maliki governments. The president said today that he would be asking Mr. Maliki to lay out a strategy for controlling the violence. "I will ask him what is required, and what is your strategy," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush arrived here in Tallinn late Monday night, becoming the first sitting United States president to visit Estonia, a tiny Baltic nation sandwiched between Russia and the Baltic Sea. The president is here on his way to Riga, Latvia, where he is to attend a N.A.T.O. summit before his Jordan trip.
Afghanistan will top the agenda at the N.A.T.O. meeting. The alliance has committed 32,000 troops to that country, but many nations have imposed restrictions on their troops that N.A.T.O. commanders say are hampering the mission. Mr. Bush is expected to press for the lifting of those restrictions.
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