Iraqi Deputy PM Urges Continued US Engagement(2/3)

But, speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a non-partisan public policy group that focuses on international affairs, he suggested Iraqi society is showing far more strength, resolve, and forbearance in confronting violence than it gets credit for in world opinion.

"People can talk about civil war in Iraq. People can complain about a sectarian divide in Iraq. But there is another way of looking at it: any other society that had been subjected to this type of barbaric onslaught day in and day out would have been in an all-out civil war. If anything, it is remarkable that Iraq has not slid into an all-out civil war."

The deputy prime minister met with Bush administration officials as well as key legislators on Capitol Hill. He said he is alarmed by the increasingly partisan tone to the debate in the United States over continued military operations in Iraq.

Salih said there are positive signs the ongoing buildup of U.S. forces in Iraq is helping bring stability to certain areas of the country, and noted that tribal factions in one province have taken up the fight against al-Qaida terrorists.