2007年VOA标准英语-Bush Sees Hopeful Signs of Progress in Iraq
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By Scott StearnsWhite House
28 June 2007
President Bush says there are hopeful signs of progress in Iraq as 30,000 additional U.S. troops have been battling al-Qaida terrorists. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports the president's comments come amid accounts of more gruesome violence in Iraq.
President Bush says reinforced U.S. troops in al-Anbar province have reduced sectarian violence there even as al-Qaida is fighting to regain1 a base of operations.
| President George Bush addresses an invitation-only crowd of military and civilians at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, 28 June 2007 |
The president spoke6 at the U.S. Naval War College in the northeast state of Rhode Island. He is under pressure from congressional Democrats7 and some within his own party to show that the increased U.S. troop levels in Iraq are making progress.
"Right now we are at the beginning stage of the offensive," he added. "We've finally got the troops there. Americans have got to understand that it takes awhile to mobilize additional troops and move them from the United States to Iraq."
Public opinion polls show a majority of Americans believe the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a mistake. A survey by Newsweek magazine last week says 73 percent of Americans disapprove8 of how the president is handling the war.
In his remarks Thursday, the president again sought to link the war in Iraq with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and he again blamed Iran and Syria for helping9 al-Qaida in Iraq.
"The influx10 of foreign fighters and foreign support makes this job a lot tougher: tougher on Iraqis, tougher on our troops," he explained. "We can expect more casualties as our forces enter enemy strongholds and push back against foreign interference."
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| A man stands among destroyed vehicles at a bus station in Bayaa neighborhood in Baghdad, 28 June 2007 |
Baghdad police say a car bomb during the Thursday morning rush hour at a bus station killed 21 people and wounded 40 others in a mainly Shi'ite district. Officials say the bodies of 20 beheaded men were found with their hands and legs bound on a riverbank in a Sunni village.
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