Iraq security adviser to Americans: Be patient
a.. Mowaffak al-Rubaie said Sunday that Iraq war is "well worth
fighting"
b.. Iraq war entered its sixth year on March 19; nearly 4,000
Americans have died

c.. At least 30 Iraqis died Sunday; 80,000 to 150,000 or more killed
since war's start
d.. Democratic senator: Pause in withdrawal sends "wrong message to
the Iraqis"
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As the Iraq war entered its sixth year, the
country's national security adviser urged Americans to be patient,
contending that the war is "well worth fighting" because it has
implications about "global terror."
"This is global terrorism hitting everywhere, and they have chosen
Iraq to be a battlefield. And we have to take them on," Mowaffak
al-Rubaie said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."
"If we don't prevail, if we don't succeed in this war, then we are
doomed forever," he said. "I understand and sympathize with the
mothers, with the widows, with the children who have lost their
beloved ones in this country.
"But honestly, it is well worth fighting and well worth investing the
money and the treasure and the sweat and the tears in Iraq."
Since the March 19, 2003, U.S.-led invasion, nearly 4,000 Americans
have died in Iraq, including three on Saturday.
Estimates of the Iraqi death toll range from about 80,000 to 150,000
or more. At least 30 Iraqis were killed Sunday, officials said.
Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and the war has cost U.S.
taxpayers about $600 billion, according to the House Budget Committee.
The conflict is now widely unpopular among Americans: A CNN-Opinion
Research Corp. poll out Wednesday found only 32 percent of Americans
support the conflict. And 61 percent said they want the next
president to remove most U.S. troops within a few months of taking
office.
In the weekly Democratic radio address Saturday, Sen. Bob Menendez of
New Jersey said President Bush "took us to war on the wings of a lie."
Menendez said that the war has depleted the resources and morale of
the U.S. military; diverted national attention away from the war in
Afghanistan, where al Qaeda is regrouping; and hurt the hunt for
Osama bin Laden. The Iraq war has not made Americans safer, Menendez
said, but has instead hurt the U.S. economy.
The senator called for a "responsible new direction" regarding Iraq.
CNN learned last week, from several U.S. military officials familiar
with the recommendations but not authorized to speak on the record,
that senior U.S. military officials are preparing to recommend to
Bush a four- to six-week "pause" in additional troop withdrawals from
Iraq after the last of the "surge" brigades leaves in July.
"If the conditions on the ground dictate that we have to have a
pause, then we will have to have a pause," al-Rubaie said.
The return of all five brigades added to the Iraq contingent last
year could reduce troop levels by up to 30,000, but still leave
approximately 130,000 or more troops in Iraq.
Al-Rubaie emphasized Sunday that any drawdown of U.S. troops "has to
be based on the conditions on the ground."
"It depends on the development and the growth and the equipment and
the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, and the preparedness
of the Iraqi security forces," he said. "This should not be a purely
political decision. It should be also a technical, military and
intelligence decision."
But there has been too much "foot-dragging on key governance
questions in Iraq," Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said on CNN
on Sunday. "It seems to me you put off those troop withdrawals, you
send exactly the wrong message to the Iraqis."
On Wednesday, Bush will visit the Pentagon to be briefed by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, chaired by Adm. Michael Mullen.
The American troop level in Iraq "depends on the negotiations that we
are engaged in now between the government of Iraq and the United
States government," al-Rubaie said.
When conditions warrant the withdrawal of American troops, the Iraqis
will say "'Thank you very much, indeed,' " al-Rubaie said. "A big,
big thank you for the United States of America for liberating Iraq,
for helping us in sustaining the security gains in Iraq ... and we
will give them a very, very good farewell party then."
Responding to recent remarks from U.S. presidential candidates that
Iraqis are not taking responsibility for their own future, al-Rubaie
said Iraqis are making political and security gains.
"Literally by the day and by the week, we are gradually assuming more
responsibility," he said, noting that Iraqis have taken
responsibility for security in many provinces.
Other developments:
. U.S. troops raided a suspected suicide bomber cell in Diyala
province on Sunday, killing a dozen militants, half of whom had
shaved their bodies -- which the U.S. military says indicates they
were in the final stage of preparation for a suicide attack. Diyala
province stretches north and east of Baghdad and has been a major
front for U.S. troops fighting militants.
. Several mortars landed in Baghdad's International Zone on Sunday,
according to the Interior Ministry. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said
there were no major casualties.
. A suicide car bomb exploded at a fuel station Sunday in a
predominantly Shiite neighborhood in northwest Baghdad, killing seven
people and wounding 12 others, the Interior Ministry said.
. A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside the
main gate of an Iraqi military base in Mosul, killing at least 10
Iraqi soldiers and wounding 35 people, including 20 soldiers, Mosul
police said. The U.S. military put the death toll higher, at 12.
. A mortar round landed in a Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad,
killing seven people and injuring nine others, a ministry official
said. Six more mortar rounds landed in other Baghdad neighborhoods
Sunday night, killing three people, the Interior Ministry said.
. In southeastern Baghdad, gunmen riding in at least two cars opened
fire on a crowded outdoor market, killing at least three people and
wounding 17 others, the Interior Ministry said.
. A suicide bomber detonated a small truck rigged with explosives
outside a local Awakening Council leader's house just east of Samarra
on Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding 13 others, a
Samarra police official said. Awakening Councils are largely Sunni
security groups that have been recruited by the U.S. military.