Bush pleads for a chance to his new Iraq plan

Washington, Jan 24 (UNI) President George W Bush has pleaded with the skeptical US Congress to give a chance to his new Iraq plan, envisaging dispatch of additional 21,500 American troops to Iraq, the move opposed both by his Republican Party and the opposition Democrats.

''The consequences of failure (in Iraq) would be grievous and far reaching,'' Mr Bush warned in his last night's State of Union Address to the joint session of the Congress, controlled by the Democratic Party for the first time during his six years in office.

He said, ''there is still time for the United States to help to shape the outcome of the conflict in Iraq.'' Allowing extremists to seize control of the country would be tantamount to ignoring the lessons of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks upon New York and Washington, he said.

''We did not drive al-Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan only to let them set up a new safe haven in a free Iraq,'' he said.

''To allow this to happen would be to ignore the lessons of September 11th and invite tragedy.'' Mr Bush said the United States was engaged in a ''generational struggle'' against terrorism, and others in the world are looking to see whether it will help moderates and reformers build free societies.

''Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies - and most will choose a better way when they are given a chance,'' he said.

He urged US lawmakers to back his new strategy designed to support Iraq's democratically elected government.

''This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk,'' he said.

Mr Bush reminded Congress that the United States is not alone in the struggle against extremism.

He also spoke of the international cooperation to bring peace between Israel and Palestinians, efforts to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and confronting threats such as Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and the resurgence of Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

Mr Bush wanted Democrats ''to show our enemies abroad that we are united in the goal of victory.'' UNI