(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-18 12:05

BAGHDAD -- Vice President Dick Cheney warned Monday against large US troop cuts that could jeopardize recent security gains in Iraq, as he marked the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion with a two-day visit to the country.

Cheney used words like "phenomenal" and "remarkable turnaround" to describe a drop in violence in Iraq, and he hailed recently passed legislation aimed at keeping Iraq on a democratic path.

US Vice President Dick Cheney (2nd L), US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker (L) and US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus (R bottom) arrive at the Iraqi's presidential office in Baghdad March 17, 2008. [Agencies]

"It would be a mistake now to be so eager to draw down the force that we risk putting the outcome in jeopardy, and I don't think we'll do that," Cheney said after spending the day zigzagging through barricades and checkpoints to get to meetings in and out of the heavily guarded Green Zone. He spent the night at a US military base, the second overnight stay in Iraq for the vice president -- the highest-ranking official to do so. Reporters accompanying him were not allowed to disclose the location. Last May, Cheney stayed at Camp Speicher, a base near former leader Saddam Hussein's hometown and about 100 miles north of Baghdad.

"It is good to be back in Iraq," Cheney, dressed in a suit and dark cowboy boots, said after his meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "It's especially significant, I think, to be able to return this week as we mark the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the campaign that liberated the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein's tyranny."

He acknowledged that there is still a lot of difficult work to be done in Iraq, where 160,000 troops are deployed and the US death toll is about to top 4,000. His own motorcade, escorted by Humvees manned by troops with machine guns, never ventured farther than about a mile outside the Green Zone.

Security has improved markedly since last summer, when the last of five Army brigades arrived in Iraq to complete the president's buildup of 30,000 troops. One brigade has already returned home and the four others are to leave by July. What remains unclear is whether Bush will order additional drawdowns in the final months of his presidency.

Related readings:  Turk envoy tells Iraq no timetable for troop pullout  Official: US troop level in Iraq will be 140,000  Bush says Iraq troop withdrawal on track  Bush approves gradual troop cuts in Iraq  Cheney: US endeavor in Iraq successful  Studies: Iraq costs US $12b per month

Bush's decision last January to increase troops put to rest any notion, "here inside Iraq or in the region, that people could `wait us out,'" Cheney said.

Shortly after the vice president arrived at the base for the night, there was a sustained burst of 50-caliber machine gunfire in downtown Baghdad. Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber killed 39 people in Karbala and a bomb in a parked car in a Baghdad neighborhood killed three civilian bystanders.

Iraq was not on Cheney's announced schedule for a 10-day Mideast trip that includes stops in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Turkey.

Cheney was flanked at a news conference by Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, who are working on a status report on the war and will testify to Congress next month.

"We're keenly aware of the strain and the stress that these extended deployments have put on soldiers and their families and we would love to draw down further, but that is dependent on conditions on the ground," said Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq.

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