Iraqi Shiite Leader Speaks Bluntly in Washington - washingtonpost.com

Iraqi Shiite Leader Speaks Bluntly in Washington - washingtonpost.com: "Iraqi Shiite Leader Speaks Bluntly in Washington
Head of Key Parliamentary Bloc Calls U.S. Anti-Insurgent Strikes 'Not Hard Enough'

By Robin Wright and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 5, 2006; A23

President Bush yesterday told the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim party that the United States is not satisfied with the progress in Iraq and appealed for more help in fighting extremism and reconciling the country's increasingly fractured society.

But in a speech after their hour-long meeting, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim countered that U.S. troops need to do more to fight the insurgency and denied that the Shiite militias are fueling the sectarian strife in Iraq. It was one of the starkest criticisms of U.S. military strategy by an Iraqi leader.

'The strikes [the insurgents] are getting from the multinational forces are not hard enough to put an end to their acts, but leave them to stand up again to resume their criminal acts,' Hakim said in a speech at the United States Institute of Peace. 'This means that there is something wrong in the policies taken to deal with that danger threatening the lives of Iraqis.'"