BAGHDAD, Iraq -For Engineering Professor Moayad Yasin al-Samaraie, President Bush's pledge to keep U.S. 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 U.S. 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
al-Samaraie said.
The 55-year-old 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 did not see the speech, which was broadcast just before dawn, 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. A discussion on electricity or oil would have been better than the Bush speech. Maybe more people would have paid attention then.
Bush's speech came on the 1-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.
The speech was broadcast live on several Arab television networks, but few Iraqis could watch it at 4 a.m. Television newscasts and Arab satellite channels broadcast portions later in the day.
Hussein said the U.S. occupation of Iraq in 2003 and the bloody insurgency that ensued have complicated her life -from a morning scramble in her darkened home, to braving the roadblocks and checkpoints manned by heavily armed Iraqi and U.S. troops.
Even more frightening was the random chance of dying from a suicide car bomb.
Bush's speech does not change anything for the Iraqi people and does not meet their needs for water
electricity
transportation and security from car bombs
said Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman. I think the Iraqi people do not care about the speech.
In Baghdad, before the U.S.-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 fuel and drinking water shortages, and only 37 percent of the population has a working sewage system.
Much of the capital's electricity during the Saddam Hussein era was a result of a poor distribution network throughout the country. The situation, however, has not improved, and the electricity network has steadily deteriorated because of sabotage and lack of maintenance in Baghdad and the rest of the country.
Al-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.
Mohammed Qassem Mohammed, 37, the owner of a Baghdad clothes store, agreed that American forces should stay in Iraq until the insurgency is quashed.
I think the presence of the American forces is necessary
but they should not stay permanently. Terrorism and rebellion in Iraq are now in their last throes
he said.
But others said the U.S. presence only served the Americans and the Iraqi officials now in power.
In a bid to end the violence, U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched military operations and made arrests as politicians work to include Sunni Arabs in the political process, seen as key to taking the steam out of the insurgency.
That is why some Iraqis were reassured by Bush's speech.
This determination not to let Iraq be plunged into civil war
