From Radio Free Europe:
Baghdad — The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said today he is horrified at the level of violence wracking the country, and that Islamic extremists and former members of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Ba’ath Party are trying to start a civil war in Iraq.
Khalilzad said after meeting in Baghdad with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that Iraq must prevail.
“Foreign terrorists and hard-line Ba’athists want Iraq to descend into civil war. Foreign terrorists are using the Iraqi people as cannon fodder. They care nothing about Iraq or the Iraqis. Their goal is the domination of the Islamic world and the promotion of global conflict,” Khalilzad was quoted by RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq as saying. “Hard-line Ba’athists who commit crimes against the Iraqi people are working to foster an all-out civil war in the hope of either restoring dictatorship and their control of Iraq, or taking the country down with them. They will fail.”
He continued: “I am horrified by the daily suffering of the Iraqi people. The terrorists attack ordinary people, teachers, doctors, newly trained police and others who are assisting the people of Iraq.”
He added further: “I will support the efforts of the Iraqis to develop a unifying vision, a national compact. This vision should be enshrined in an enlightened and sound constitution that embraces democracy, pluralism and individual rights. The process must be inclusive. For Iraq to achieve its full potential, no community or sector should be marginalized.”…