Bush: More Time Needed To Craft Iraq Strategy

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush worked nearly three hours at his Texas ranch yesterday to design a new American policy in Iraq, then emerged to say that he and his advisers need more time to craft the plan he’ll announce in the new year.

Burdened by low approval ratings on his handling of the war, the president is under mounting pressure to come up with a new blueprint for American involvement in Iraq where the execution of Saddam Hussein — perhaps as early as this weekend — could incite further violence.

“We’ve got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan,” Mr. Bush said, appearing outside an office building at his ranch. “Obviously, we’ll continue to work with the Iraqi government. The key to success in Iraq is to have a government that’s willing to deal with the elements there that are trying to prevent this young democracy from succeeding.”

Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, and Secretary of Defense Gates stood by Mr. Bush as he made his three-minute statement on a dirt road lined with cactus, then turned away, ignoring a reporter’s question about the execution.

He thanked American troops for their service, yet offered no hint that he was poised to send more of them to war.

“As I think about this plan, I always have our troops in mind,” Mr. Bush said.

The president is considering the so-called surge option: increasing the number of troops in Iraq and embedding more American advisers in Iraqi units in hopes of quelling violence to provide a window of opportunity for political reconciliation and rebuilding.

“I think the debate is really coming down to: Surge large. Surge small. Surge short. Surge longer,” a defense and security expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Tom Donnelly, said. “I think the smart money would say that the range of options is fairly narrow and driven by the situation on the ground in Iraq.”

Initially, White House advisers said Mr. Bush would announce a plan before Christmas. Then, they said it was more likely after the first of the year. His speech now is to occur in the early weeks of January. A senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, James Carafano, said that if Mr. Bush is delaying his announcement, it has less to do with events in America and more to do with the situation in Iraq.

“If it were just picking a troop number, they’d be done by now,” Mr. Carafano said. “My guess is that it has to synchronize with some kind of Iraqi domestic political situation in Iraq.”

Some military experts support a surge in troop levels beyond the 140,000 already on the ground in Iraq. They contend this will provide a window of opportunity for rebuilding and a political reconciliation between the Sunni and Shiite factions.


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