As President Bush gets ready to give a speech outlining a new U.S. approach in Iraq, some Iraqis are expressing doubts that the anticipated changes will bring peace to their troubled nation.  VOA's Jim Randle reports from northern Iraq.

An Iraqi policeman secures the site where a car bomb exploded at a market in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 10 Jan 2007

Iraqi newspapers and news broadcasts say President Bush's revised strategy is likely to call for about 20,000 more American troops and a larger program to fix the economy and create jobs.

But some ordinary Iraqis have doubts about the new policies.

This Baghdad resident thinks U.S. troops are at a stalemate and Washington does not know how to get out of the situation.

Another Iraqi says the people are unable to protect themselves, and Mr. Bush should pay more attention to the interests of average people.

And a third Iraqi says some of the proposed tactics do not seem new.

He says a new security plan was put into effect several months ago, but the situation has gotten worse.

Meantime, Iraqi government leaders have said new security plans will succeed, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently vowed to strike at the Shiite Muslim and Sunni Arab extremists behind the sectarian bloodshed.

And a police commander in Mosul told journalists that his officers are now better trained and better equipped.

He says his more-effective officers are improving the security situation in his city.

More than 3,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.