Posted on 06/24/2005 9:28:47 AM PDT by phoenix_004
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, under pressure over declining American support for the Iraq war, discussed strategy on the way forward on Friday with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
White House officials indicated there would be no major change in Bush's Iraq policy, keeping U.S. troops there until Iraqis are sufficiently trained to defend themselves. Bush and Jaafari planned a news conference in the White House East Room after their talks.
The U.S. president faces a difficult task of acknowledging the difficulties in Iraq with his tendency to emphasize the positive.
Fifty-one percent of Americans believe the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, according to a New York Times/CBS poll published a week ago.
"This war has been consistently and grossly mismanaged," Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday in a tense Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "And we are now in a seemingly intractable quagmire."
At that hearing, Army Gen. John Abizaid, who as head of Central Command is the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, declined to endorse Vice President Dick Cheney's assessment that Iraq's insurgency was in its "last throes."
Abizaid said the insurgents' strength had not diminished and that more foreign fighters were coming into Iraq than six months ago. "There's a lot of work to be done against the insurgency," Abizaid said.
McClellan said Bush's speech would be delivered at 8 p.m., and that the White House has asked U.S. television networks to air the address live.
They said the president will address the nation on Tuesday night to try to bolster public support amid a rising death toll in the war, television images of bloody chaos and calls from some in Congress for a plan to pull U.S. troops out.
"This is a critical moment in Iraq," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Friday in announcing Bush will speak to U.S. troops and a televised audience at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "This is a real time of testing."
Bush will be "very specific about the way forward in Iraq," he said.
Some U.S. lawmakers, including a few from Bush's own Republican Party, have called for a deadline to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq.
The White House has rejected the proposal as one that would encourage the insurgents, who have mounted a bombing campaign that has killed hundreds since the Shi'ite-led government was formed two months ago.
Jaafari told The Washington Post in an interview that he would like to see U.S. troops withdraw as quickly as possible "because the presence of any foreign troops on our land means there is a weakness that we cannot by ourselves control the security situation."
He called for accelerating the training of Iraqi troops, including a possible role for nations that are not a part of the U.S.-led military coalition.
"We strongly prefer an increase in quality of Iraqi forces, increase in number, increase in efficiency, increase in the effectiveness of tactics they use, as well as increase in equipment ... anything that will raise efficiency of Iraqi forces is something that will be very welcomed because it will allow other forces, especially American forces, to withdraw," the prime minister said.
I'm sure the liberal media will put a defeatist spin on this.
Project Phoenix is desperately needed. Iraqis loyal to the new Iraq must take this on and conduct a ruthless campaign against the "insurgents" Public executions, public displays are needed to let the majority see their works. Only fear and utter ruthlessness will stop the terrorists.
Gee .. do ya think the media will report on what the PM of Iraq said about how PROUD Americans should feel for bringing Peace to Iraq
That Americans have given the Iraqi people the greatest gift .. their sons and daughters so that the Iraqi people could live in peace and freedom and the Iraqi people thank us
Leftist bias IN THE FIRST SENTENCE~!
Nope! The al Jazeera American outlet in Reuters doesn't want the American people to be proud! they want us to think our troops are comparable to Pol Pot, this is Bush's war and that he is a war criminal.
I demand Reuters label itself an extension of Al Quida's propaganda news wing. False advertising to label as anything but.
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