14 December 2005
Iraqi Elections Mark Beginning of New, Unified, Stable Iraq
State's Hughes speaks to ABC, NBC, CBS December 14
By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Legislative elections in Iraq December 15 mark the beginning of a new, unified and stable Iraq, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes says.
Hughes conveyed that message in three interviews with U.S. television networks ABC, NBC and CBS December 14.
"[C]learly it's a major, major milestone for the people of Iraq that leads toward the day when we can began to do what we all want” and be able to start bringing American military personnel home, Hughes told ABC.
She said that the number of trained Iraqi security forces nearly has doubled since the beginning of the year, allowing them to assume "a great deal of the security" for the elections.
Speaking to NBC, Hughes said she expects broad participation in the elections from Iraq's Sunni Arabs, in contrast to their boycott of the elections for a transitional national assembly in January.
Hughes said that an opinion poll indicates that 71 percent of Iraqis feel their lives are good now and an even higher percentage are optimistic that their lives will be better a year from now.
"[P]eople in the region see that the Iraqi people themselves feel that they are better off than they were under the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein," Hughes said.
Hughes told CBS that President Bush "believes in his heart" that his decision to go to war in Iraq was the "right" policy because "it will lead to greater peace and greater security, not only for America but for the people of Iraq and for people throughout the world."
In response to a question about revelations that the U.S. Defense Department is paying members of the Iraqi media to publish articles favorable to the United States, Hughes said President Bush is "troubled by those reports."
"[I]t's very important that, as a government, we base our dealings on the truth and that we're ethical and up-front about our information we provide," Hughes said to NBC.
Commenting on pending U.S. legislation that would define U.S. practices on treatment of detainees, Hughes said, "The goal is to make it very clear that the United States is a nation of laws and that we operate our detainee policy within our laws, within our international obligations, and without torture."
For additional information, see Iraq Update.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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