Iraqis say Bush "victory" is Mideast control

The United States may have crushed Saddam Hussein but it failed to bring democracy and brought destruction to Iraq and the only "victory" achieved is stronger U.S. hegemony in the region, Iraqis said as they marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

U.S. President George W. "Bush speaks of victory but I say he has only achieved one thing for this country, destruction," said Abu Fares al-Daraji, in his tobacco shop on the once-bustling Saadun Street of downtown Baghdad.

For Daraji and many of his compatriots, bloodshed has overshadowed the elimination of Saddam's regime and most feel that Washington alone reaped benefits from the war.

"The United States achieved victory for itself by strengthening its control of the region, particularly that Iraq is a strategic country to contain the Iranian threat," said Daraji.

"They only secured their own interests, not those of the Iraqi people," Daraji said.

"The Americans are an extension of Saddam. Decision-making is in their hands and the (Iraqi) government has no sovereignty whatsoever."

"There is no victory. The Americans brought our way things we never knew like terrorism and the killings we see on the streets," Daraji added.

The war has killed more than 1 million Iraqis, 4,000 U.S. and allied soldiers and turned 5 million people in refugees.

On the eve of the war's anniversary, Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq in a speech at the Pentagon, vowing no retreat and pledging that victory will prevail.

"Five years into this battle, there's an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me," Bush said.

The plight of millions of Iraqis who still have little or no access to clean water, sanitation or health care is the "most critical in the world," the International Committee of the Red Cross said in its latest report.

U.S. Protests

More than 200 people were arrested across the United States on Wednesday as protesters marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq obstructed downtown traffic and tried to block access to government offices.

There were 32 arrests in Washington after demonstrators attempted to block entrances to the Internal Revenue Service, while 30 others were arrested outside a congressional office building, police said.

Protesters had hoped to shut down the IRS, the U.S. tax collection agency, to highlight the cost of the war. Police cleared the building's entrances within an hour.

In San Francisco, long a center of anti-Iraq war sentiment, police arrested more than 100 people who protested through the day along Market Street in the central business district, a spokesman said.

Four women were also detained for hanging a large banner off the city's famous Golden Gate Bridge and then released, said bridge spokeswoman Mary Currie.

On Washington's National Mall, about 100 protesters carried signs that read: "The Endlessness Justifies the Meaninglessness" and waved upside-down U.S. flags, a traditional sign of distress.

"Bush and Cheney, leaders failed, Bush and Cheney belong in jail," they chanted, referring to U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

In New York, about 30 members of the "Granny Peace Brigade" gathered in Times Square, knitting in hand, to demand troops be brought home now.

Police in Boston arrested five people who blocked access to a military recruitment center by lying on a sidewalk dressed as slain Iraqi civilians, an Iraqi mourner, a slain U.S. soldier and an American citizen in mourning.

"We went to this military recruiting station today because we want to see the war end immediately," said activist Joe Previtera in a tatement. "Silently waiting for Congress to act on this war in 2009 will condemn thousands more people to injury and senseless death. Enough is enough."

The war has cost the United States $500 billion since the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein began in March 2003 and is a major issue in November's U.S. presidential election. Millions of Iraqis have been killed or displaced, with almost 4,000 U.S. soldiers killed.