Sort out future or see US leaving Iraq

US Senator Joseph Biden told a gathering of Iraqi tribal leaders and officials on Thursday to reconcile their differences and sort out their future as US troops would not stick around forever to shed their blood in war-ravaged Iraq.
Biden, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Democratic contender for 2008 White House, told the meeting in Anbar province: "Unity of Iraq is an Iraqi problem. America wants you to succeed and we will do whatever we can to enable you to succeed."
Speaking at a one-day forum in Ramadi, capital of the province, just days after US President George W. Bush had stopped in the region to endorse peace initiatives, Biden said Iraq's future was in their hands.
"Only you can determine the future. It's encouraging to see central government assisting you in Anbar. In America we are waiting to see how extensive that cooperation will be," Biden said.
"If it is (extensive) you can count on America to stay, if it is not, we can say goodbye now.
"There are difficulties but if you continue (to make progress) we will also send you our sons and daughters to shed their blood with you, for you. But if you decide that you cannot live together let us know. My son, who is a captain in the army, can stay home."
US officials said the Anbar Forum was aimed at giving an economic boost to the western province, where former Sunni insurgents have joined with US forces to fight al-Qaeda.
Some 3,000 US and Iraqi troops were deployed to secure the governate in the centre of the city where the forum was being held, officials said.
Among the few dozen attending the forum were Iraqi vice presidents Tareq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdel Mahdi, deputy prime minister Barham Saleh and members of the provincial government, including Governor Maamun Sami Rashid.
Also attending was Sheikh Sattar Abu Risha and 11 other tribal leaders from the so-called Anbar Awakening Conference, comprising Sunni tribes who formed an alliance with American troops to claw back their neighbourhoods from al-Qaeda extremists.
Iraq government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, also speaking at the forum, said the government was doing its best but there was "no magic way."
"The reality on the ground should be understood by politicians from Washington," he said.
"We are passing through a critical time ... Iraqis themselves do not believe in the government because of a lack of services but there is no magic way," Dabbagh said.
"The government is doing its best. The political atmosphere is not healthy. There is a lack of trust (between leaders). The government is working with half of its members (following boycotts and walkouts from the cabinet). We do understand the difficulties," he said.
On Monday, Bush made a surprise stopover at an airbase just 48km west of Ramadi, where he said a reduction in US combat troops in Iraq was possible due to progress on the security front in Anbar.
The White House is to make a formal report to the Democratic-led Congress by September 15 aimed at persuading US lawmakers to continue funding the Iraq war, four and a half bloody years since the US-led invasion of 2003.
The turnaround in Anbar is expected to feature prominently in the White House argument that US troops should remain in Iraq to create more space for political reconciliation.
Ramadi had until recently been a symbol of the failure of the US military and the Iraqi government to assert their will among the fiercely-independent Sunni tribes living in the deserts west of Baghdad.
But since the Anbar Awakening group was formed earlier this year, the tide has turned and a semblance of normality has returned to the streets and market places of Ramadi.