Maliki's mission in the US

President Bush probably had a different atmosphere in mind when he invited Iraq's first democratically elected prime minister since Saddam Hussein's fall, Nouri al-Maliki, for a White House visit.

But Mr. Maliki Tuesday returned the favor of Mr. Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad six weeks ago at a time of deepening crisis in the Middle East, with the president's vision of a region transformed by democracy under intensifying fire.

Not only does Iraq teeter closer to full-scale civil war since Maliki assumed his office in May, but the crisis in Lebanon is adding to and in many ways overshadowing the difficulties in Iraq. With Israel battling a US-listed terror group in Lebanon – but one enthusiastically elected to representative government by Lebanon's Shiites – America's Middle East policy is at its most difficult moment of the Bush presidency.

"When the Maliki trip was planned, both sides hoped it would be a more upbeat event, with improving rather than deteriorating conditions in Iraq," says James Dobbins, a former White House envoy for international crises and now director of international security studies at the RAND Corp. in Arlington, Va. "Instead, more Iraqis are dying every day in sectarian violence – but even that has been relegated to the B section of the newspaper by even more spectacular developments elsewhere in the Middle East."

The Iraqi prime minister's visit comes in a week of intense Middle East diplomacy, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the region and in Europe pressing for a multipronged security plan for the Israeli-Lebanese border. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is scheduled to consult with Bush at the White House Friday on the Middle East.

Following their White House meeting Tuesday morning, both Bush and Maliki said more US and Iraqi security forces will be transferred over the coming weeks from other regions to Baghdad – the area now seen as ground zero in the battle to stabilize the country.

Bush acknowledged that conditions in Baghdad are "still terrible," and said the plan to beef up both US and Iraqi security forces is based on recommendations of the US military command on the ground.

Noting the Iraqi people's perseverance in the face of terrible violence, Bush said, "America is proud to be allied with such people." More broadly, he said that Iraq and Lebanon, as well as the Palestinians, are all cases of "new democracies emerging, and the terrorists are trying to stop that."

Maliki came to the White House an unlikely hero. He was exiled in Syria and Iran during the Hussein regime and opposed the US invasion of Iraq. More recently, he has been critical of Israel in its battle with Hizbullah, and spoke of his "frank" discussion of Lebanon with Bush. He differs with Bush on the sequence for a solution in Lebanon, saying a cease-fire should come first, followed by long-term solutions.

Maliki is also set to address a joint session of Congress Wednesday, and to join Bush for lunch with military families at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Wednesday's events underscore what many observers see as the primary purpose of the Maliki visit: to shore up flagging congressional and public support for the Iraq project. Indeed, with a growing number of US lawmakers – including Republicans – expressing doubts about Iraq, the White House is seen to fear not so much the insurgency in Iraq as the insurgency in Washington.

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